Astronauts might be given an enhanced weight loss program during spaceflights that features a greater variety and quantity of fruits, vegetables, and fish to enhance their health and performance compared to plain spaceflight food, reports a study published in Scientific Reports. Although conducted in a spaceflight simulation chamber on Earth with 16 individuals, these findings could have implications for astronaut health and decisions about food resource priorities on spaceflights.

Long-duration spaceflight is understood to affect human health, and spacecraft size and power constraints limit what might be taken into space. The food astronauts eat could have the potential to mitigate some negative health changes during spaceflight, but in turn the food might be limited by mass, volume, shelf-life, and storage requirements.

Grace Douglas and colleagues investigated the difference in impact of two diets on 16 individuals (10 males and 6 females). 4 individuals participated in each of the 4 45-day missions in an Earth-based, closed chamber designed to simulate the confined spaceflight environment, alongside the practicality of storing different foodstuffs in these conditions. Individuals ate either an enhanced weight loss program or an ordinary weight loss program. The improved weight loss program included an increased variety of servings and number of fruit and veggies, together with more fish and sources of omega-3 fatty acids. The usual spaceflight weight loss program is currently used on the International Space Station, and while it meets most requirements, the authors propose that it could use more sources of fruit and veggies, and more sources of omega-3 fatty acids.

The improved weight loss program provided greater than six servings of fruit and veggies per day and between two to a few servings of fish per week, amongst other healthy foods. All foods were shelf-stable, which is a requirement to support the room temperature, prolonged storage conditions on current space missions. To simulate real spaceflight conditions, the food was stored within the chamber before the beginning of every mission. Individuals provided samples of saliva, urine, blood, and stool and accomplished cognitive assessment tasks throughout the missions.

The authors found that individuals who consumed the improved spaceflight weight loss program had lower levels of cholesterol, lower cortisol levels (suggesting lower stress), greater cognitive speed, accuracy and a spotlight, and a more stable microbiome than individuals consuming the usual weight loss program.

The authors conclude that an enhanced spaceflight weight loss program has significant health and performance advantages for people and will be helpful for astronauts, even on short space missions. Although further investigation is required to evaluate healthier diets in space, these findings may help to guide food resource priorities on space exploration missions in future.

Source:

Journal reference:

Douglas, G.L., et al. (2022) Impact of weight loss program on human nutrition, immune response, gut microbiome, and cognition in an isolated and confined mission environment. Scientific Reports. doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-21927-5.