Dietary Needs, Approaches and Recommendations to Meet the Demands of Future Manned Space Flights

Abstract

Space flight imposes a myriad of adverse effects upon the human body. Improved in-flight nutritional strategies help mitigate those adverse effects. This review examines how space flight changes human physiology, and how improved in-flight nutritional strategies may address the unique dietary needs created by microgravity exposure. Dietary approaches and recommendations to address those needs are discussed. This review also describes food sustainability methods for long-term manned space flight, how precision nutrition can aid in-flight dietary prescriptions, and how wearable technologies can help monitor dietary status and health during long-term manned space flight. This review describes the magnitude of adverse changes incurred from space flight, and the current knowledge base on how improved in-flight nutritional strategies may abate the adverse changes. Wearable technologies, used in conjunction with precision nutrition prescriptions, may best serve the demands of monitoring human health and dietary status on future manned space flights.