Nutrition needs in space

[Jeffy Boy]

Do nutrition requirements differ in space compared to on earth?

I'm curious about calorie needs, given weightlessness, and if there are any peculiarities with respect to protein, fats, vitamins and minerals. Is extra calcium needed for long-duration missions?

[CalorieLab]

Vickie,

I picture your job as a much, much more complicated version of what I had to go through planning for backpacking trips!

Is nutritional information (calories, fat, sodium, etc.) for food items consumed by the astronauts publicly available? And is there a place on the NASA web site devoted to information about space food and diet?

Mark

[Vickie Kloeris]

Menus for flights are posted to the web prior to/during each mission. We do not post specific nutritional analysis of the menus. Since many of the foods we use are commercially available, the info for those products is out there. The website for space food is http://www.spaceflight.nasa.gov/living/spacefood/index.html. You can link back from this website to Shuttle and ISS and find the crew menus. The menus for Expedition 8 are currently posted.