Fluids act very differently when you are in space. Cooking something is also very difficult in microgravity. Here are the types of foods that are hard passes in space.
If you accidentally eat a greasy salad or have Chinese at the office, there is a good chance that you might feel rumbling in your stomach during those afternoon meetings. Now imagine, your job is out there, not on the field, but on the space. Yeah, things might get too difficult to manage up there. Astronauts have food choices to some degree. However, these foods are often packed and sealed months ahead. Additionally, they also have to figure out how they will eat and drink in microgravity when their food and utensils float away everywhere in the spaceship.
So, with all the technological advancements, especially food technology, astronauts are now allowed more food options. But, why is it important to look at space programs and how astronauts eat and more importantly, what they eat? Well, according to Vickie Kloeris, a retired manager at NASA and a food scientist, humanity in general has benefited a lot from space programs. So, knowing about the food habits of astronauts in space can also be very beneficial for people down here.
Now, let’s see what the 5 types of food that astronauts cannot have in space are.
- Food with the highest risk of foodborne sickness
Anyone who has ever had to deal with food poisoning in their lives knows what a great deal of pain they bring. It is already so difficult to deal with here, with doctors and hospitals available. Imagine how difficult it would be up there, as continuous vomiting, or visiting the bathroom can be way worse in orbit. On top of that, microgravity makes things very smelly and messy, especially in close quarters. So astronauts have to avoid food that comes with foodborne sickness. Foods that are at high risk of poisoning include seafood, meat items, unwashed fruits and vegetables, unpasteurized milk items, etc. The International Space Station also doesn’t have any dedicated food refrigerators. This means any food item that people carry there has to be stable on shelves.
- Ready-to-eat meals
Another type of food that astronauts cannot eat in space is military-style ready-to-eat meals. Usually, Meals Ready To Eat (MREs) are shelf-stable rations and are also self-contained that military people all around the world use. But, they would not work very well in space, as they are very high in salt and fat. The food being dense in salt and fat is important in the military services as the salt covers up for the electrolytes sweated out in a number of compact scenes. High fat, on the other hand, makes up for the low availability of finding balanced food items. However, this high salt content has a worsening impact on bone density loss- one of the known side effects of microgravity. As there is no push from gravity in space, astronauts already face bone density. While exercise helps reduce this, diet plays a major role. As salt can worsen bone loss, doctors always recommend eating a low-salt diet to help battle this. So in space, ready-to-eat military meals are not allowed.
- Bland food
Bland food is up to no one’s liking in general, but particularly in space. In space, microgravity causes bodily fluids to shift which leads to often congestion on the sinus and face. This makes a great impact on the astronaut’s sense of smell and taste. So in that case, hot sauces, tabasco, and other extremely flavorful food items are fan favorites. However, this is not just a matter of food tasting better. Besides providing nutritional value, tasty food also has positive psychological benefits on human bodies. So eating food that makes astronauts happy is a challenging task that does not have any space for any bland food.
- Food with crumbs
Imagine eating chips or crisps, the crunch alone brings a sheer joy to eaters that is incomparable with anything else. No matter how much you like food with crumbs, astronauts cannot eat that in space. The reason is again, microgravity in space. Down here the crumbs from food items fall down. But as there is no gravity push in space, the crumbs don’t fall down, instead they float around, creating a mess. These crumbs then could easily get into instruments in the spaceship, air filters, and even in the eyes of the astronauts. In 1965, renowned astronaut John Young even got in trouble for sneaking in a corned beef sandwich in Gemini III. However, he could only eat a very small amount for fear of the crumbs getting everywhere. There have been several attempts to bring Pringles and other crumby, crispy food items into space, but it created a lot of anxiety and mess, making it not worth eating there. So, instead of bread, astronauts stick to tortillas. The other more suitable options are bite-sized cookies and crackers which can be eaten as a whole without that many crumbs.
- Alcohol
Having a glass of champagne sounds like the perfect thing to enjoy in space when you are looking down at the Earth. However, alcohol is completely banned by the International Space Station and NASA. Initially, it was banned for obvious safety reasons, the same reason why no workplace allows alcohol on the job. But especially for the astronauts in space, since they have a space vessel to stay in, damaging that property could lead them in very big trouble. Later, NASA figured out that ethanol does not break down when it is recycling water and air. Because when ethanol gets into the air, it pollutes the air system, and then it moves to the water system. However, that does not mean one or two bottles of alcohol haven’t made it to space!
You might be thinking, that all the good food is not allowed up there, so, astronauts must have it really hard when it comes to food. They get fresh supplies of vegetables and fruits in regular shipments to the International Space Station.
