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Show report in the Journal of American Ameri-can Dietetic Association, the Astronaut should eat at two to three hour intervals to insure an optimal state of nutrition. Foods recommended for consumption con-sumption while in flight, according accord-ing to this report, consist of a variety of sandwiches; meat such as beef, turkey, and ham; fruit sauces, fruit juice, chocolate drinks, cookies and candy. Solid foods are provided in bite-size, individually wrapped pieces. ri?anrntsiouahps oshrdluetaoin i Liquids and semi-solids are in collapsible squeeze tubes. Con sumption of a multivitamin preparation prep-aration during flight is recommended, recom-mended, since experimental data indicate beneficial effects from water-coluble vitamins during stress, the report states. In addition, the Astronaut Nutrition Experts Laboring to Devise Space Diet What does a spaceman eat and drink? While thousands of physicists engineers and electronics experts worked to bring Project Mercury to its successful climax, other scientists anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists were working out a life support system sys-tem that would enable Astronaut John H. Glenn, Jr. and his successors suc-cessors to survive their journeys into space. And at the same time, nutrition experts have been laboring for! years to develop special diets' and methods of eating for space , travelers. Although feeding Astronaut Glenn on his short 4 -hour trip was not a critical factor, it will become to in 1963 when 24-hour orbits are scheduled and later when trips to the moon and beyond bey-ond are planned. must be provided with drinking water, approximately 100 ouncer for each day of flight. Evidence that this type of diet is acceptable, and even pleasant comes from a report by Soviet Cosmonaut Gherman Titov ("Space World," January, 1962) who stated: "In the main, drinking and eating in space was as easy as on the earth. According to the schedule, I had my dinner and supper, then breakfast the next morning. Apart from the tubed food. I also ate solid kinds of food, biting off small pieces of bread and chewing them. I also swallowed vitamin pills. And of course, I drank water from a special device." As for future, long-distance flights, nutritionists now are experimenting ex-perimenting with algae which will be carried in the space capsule cap-sule not only to provide food but to take carbon dioxide from the These nutritionists had to design de-sign a diet for the Astronaut which would bring him to peak condition before the flight, and to keep him fit during the round-the-world trip. Pre-flight feeding, for 72 hours prior to blast-off, consists of a high-protein, low residue diet Immediately prior to take-off, the Astronaut ate a high-carbohydrate, moderate-protein, low-fat low-fat meal, consisting of orange juice, scrambled eggs, filet mignon, toast and jelly and decaffeinated de-caffeinated coffee. In-flight feeding presented many new problems for scientists. scien-tists. According to nutritionist Beatrice Finkelstcin of the Aero Medical Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in a air and convert it into life-supporting oxygen. In even the more distant future, fu-ture, some scientists think that they may have the answer to the space traveler's food problem. According to aero medical expert Lt. Col. John Wichman, researchers, research-ers, are now studying the effect of hypothermia (low temperatures) tempera-tures) on man. It may be found that periods of hypothermia can be controlled, thus prolonging man's life for longer and longer space flights, as well as helping solve the food problems, according accord-ing to Dr. Wichman. Thus, deep freeze may become as important to the spaceman as it is today for his super-marketing, earth-bound companions. |