The effects of zero gravity.. or diet?

[Guest guest]

I just read an article in Slate -- http://slate.msn.com/id/2078230/ --

about the space program, and one paragraph in particular struck me.

>Long space flights create even more problems. Blood volume drops, muscles

>atrophy, and bones lose their density—at the rate of about 1 percent a

>month, or faster. After spending 4 and a half months on Mir, " I had lost

>40 percent of my muscle mass, 12 percent of my bone, and 23 pounds, "

>astronaut Wolf said in National Geographic. Balance problems upon

>his return caused him to run into doors. " It took six months to feel

>strong again, a year to get the bone mass back, and two years to get the

>details of my life together. " Scientists worry that astronauts who spend

>too long in space will lose some of their bone density permanently, the

>way paraplegics do.

Astronauts eat just about the most highly-processed food there is on the

planet because of the requirement that the food take up very little volume

and weigh very little, that it last forever, be reconstituted on demand,

etc. etc. So I wondered how much of the ill effects of space travel are

from space travel itself, and how much are from the food those poor

astronauts have to eat. I do think they eat the same food during certain

parts of their training on the ground to get used to it, and presumably

their bone isn't dissolving away at such a prodigious rate then, but I

still wonder what would happen if the astronauts were fed raw grass-fed

butter, rare steaks from grass-fed cows, and so on and so forth -- IOW

genuinely healthy food that can reverse osteoporosis and cavities down here

on earth -- while up in space.

I don't suppose there's any way to find out for sure, but it's an

interesting thought.

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