Space Food

History: In 1962, John Glenn, America’s first man to eat anything in microgravity, had the non-appetizing pleasure of experiencing bite-sized cubes of food coated with gelatin, freeze-dried powders, and semi-liquids packaged in aluminum tubes.

By the 1970s, astronauts on the Apollo mission were allowed to have hot water on missions, making it easier to rehydrate food. Now, to destroy microorganisms and harmful enzymes, thermostabilized foods are processed in heat and packaged in aluminum cans or metallic pouches. The experience of eating space food became a little more normal when Skylab, the United States’ first space station, developed a dining room with footholds, which made it easier to actually sit down; and, in 1985, tortillas made it more possible to eradicate bread-crumb and microgravity-handling problems.

The Space Food Systems Laboratory at the Johnson Space Center now tests food nine months before flight, and some is even available in commercial grocery stores.

European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti prepares lunch using a space food rehydrator. Photo via Flickr user NASA. 

Nutrition: Because astronauts lose weight during orbit while adjusting to weightlessness, it’s important that they both enter space with utmost health and consume enough nutrients during travel. With 72 rehydratable, thermostabilized, irradiated, and natural form menu items, astronaut diets are designed to give 100 percent of the daily value of vitamins and minerals necessary.

However, space food must have less than 10 milligrams of iron per day and must be low in sodium or else astronauts can develop bone loss as well as health problems, due to low red blood cell count that develops during orbit.

Once astronauts arrive on lunar or planetary surfaces and establish living quarters, they’re able to live off a primarily vegetarian diet by growing and harvesting crops such as potatoes (high in vitamin C and B6), wheat (high in vitamin E), peanuts (high in iron, magnesium, and vitamin B6), dried beans (high in vitamin K), spinach (high in vitamin A6), tomatoes (high in vitamin A6 and C), herbs (high in vitamin A), carrots, cabbage, and radishes (high in vitamin C), and rice (high in vitamin B6 and magnesium).

On the International Space Station, Steve Swanson harvests a crop of red romaine lettuce grown from seeds. Photo via Flickr user NASA.

How to Eat Space Food: Astronauts can only eat fresh food within the first few days of flight. In case flights are extended, a supplementary food pantry is flown to them.

Astronaut Terry Virts makes a “space cheeseburger” using a tortilla, tomato paste, Russian mustard, and beef patties. Photo via Flickr user NASA.

Insects as Food

History: We’ve been eating insects since the dawn of time, 10,000 years ago as hunter-gatherers. Roman aristocrats ate beetle larvae reared on wine and flour. When St. John the Baptist lived in the desert, he survived on locusts and honey. According to 19th century documents, Paiute Indians survived on crickets.

Across the world, in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, insects are on menus. Fire-roasted or fried tarantulas and ants are in Latin American dishes, winged termites are made into bread in Ghana, de-winged dragonflies are boiled in coconut milk and served with ginger and garlic as a delicacy in Bali, and in Mexico, the agave worm is eaten in tortillas and placed in bottles of liquor. It’s only in America, Europe, and the United Kingdom where eating insects still seems to be taboo, and it’s all because “when we invested in livestock, bugs became the enemy,” biologist and The Eat-a-Bug Cookbook’s author David George Gordon says in National Geographic.

Yet, as we face climate change and with all the water wasted in the livestock industry, there’s a need to rethink how we consume protein, and insects seem to be much more environmentally friendly. According to National Geographic, “Insect farming is much more efficient than cattle production. One hundred pounds of feed produces 10 pounds of beef, while the same amount of feed for insects produces 45 pounds of cricket.”

However, with the use of pesticides, we’re at risk for denuding our planet of another possible source of food.

Deep fried grasshoppers. Photo via Flickr user killerturnip.

Nutrition: While a cooked hamburger may have 18 percent protein and 18 percent fat, a cooked grasshopper has 60 percent protein with only 6 percent of fat, and that insect fat is unsaturated, and therefore healthier, according to Slate. Now, the United States is making ground insects into protein powders like BugMuscle, which contains all the nine essential amino acids that a whey-based protein powder has.

Whey in its natural liquid form is only one percent protein by weight, whereas dried whey is 12 percent protein, and once processed, 80 percent protein by weight, while dried insects, without industrial processing, are 65 percent protein, according to Slate. And while lean ground beef has 26.1 percent protein, mealworms have 23.7 percent protein, and house flies have only .1 percent less protein than fish or wild salmon. Crickets, mealworms, waxworms, soldier fly larvae, and cockroaches are also way higher in calcium, magnesium, and B12 vitamins than any fish or poultry, with house flies having the highest level of iron than any other insect or meat.

The challenge is, how do we make it all completely edible and safe? Whether we know it or not, insects are already in our food, with almost 30 fragments of insects per 100 grams of peanut butter, 60-90 fragments per 100 grams in chocolate, 75 fragments per 50 grams of wheat flour, and 1250 insect fragments per 10 grams of oregano. And if you’re not sold yet, gourmet food companies are popping up to make insects seem more edible to the human psyche/eye, like Meryl Natow’s Six Foods, or cricket supplier Big Cricket Farms.

Silkworm pupa from a Korean market. Photo via Flickruser Willluo. 

How to Eat Insects: To get the full nutritional benefit, insects must be eaten whole, including their exoskeleton and internal organs. Good news for all those freaked out by insects, exoskeletons are similar to the cell walls of plants, fungi, shrimp, crab, and lobster shells.

Deep-fried grasshoppers. Photo via Flickruser killerturnip.

Meals Ready to Eat (MREs)

History: If you’re planning a long camping trip or if you want to be proactive about disaster survival, it may be wise to stock up on civilian ready-to-eat meals. First developed for the military in 1979, MREs with shelf lives of up to 60 months were designed to keep soldiers nourished during combat, in any sort of rough climate or conditions, made hot with the use of a flameless ration heater.

After Y2K and Hurricane Katrina, however, a market for civilian MREs popped up, now being mainly produced by MREStar, Wornick Foods, XMRE, and Meal Kit Supply.

Photo via Flickr user Foam

Nutrition: Although not often appetizing to the eye, recipes for MREs have gotten better ever since 1998, when over 24 different menus were developed.

Each meal contained over 1,250 calories (13 percent protein, 36 percent fat, and 51 percent carbohydrates), with a third of the Military Recommended Daily Allowance of vitamins and minerals and fortified with 60-100 percent vitamin A, 52-100 percent vitamin C, and B vitamins, 27-93 percent calcium and 34-47 percent iron.

Three MREs are recommended per day to get the full calorie count required, though the meals themselves are not necessarily the healthiest, made with an average of up to 2,000 grams of sodium, 26-62 grams of hydrogenated fat, and 50-102 grams of sugar to prevent spoilage. For those with dietary restrictions, there are now vegetarian options, including chili and beans, cheese tortellini, vegetarian ratatouille, fried rice, and potato cheddar soup.

Sample menus with nutritional content can be seen here.

Chicken tetrizzini. Photo via Infrogmation.

How to Eat MREs: Because most soldiers and civilians during combat and disasters need to conserve energy, it’s recommended to eat all carbohydrates first, and to save unopened snacks when on the move.

MRE food is prepared with a flameless ration heater. Photo via mreinfo.com.

Soylent

History: With a name wryly inspired by the 1973 science fiction movie Soylent Green, in which people survived on human remains, soy, and lentils, today’s Soylent is classified as a food product—without the lentils (or human remains).

For tech workers constantly at their computers, unable to stand up and go to the kitchen to cook, or for the campers, Soylent is a staple meal that can give you all the nutrients you need, made in under three minutes, for only $10 a day for three meals. The company has even created a DIY portal for people to share their own recipes.

Yet, this product is still being tested, receiving mixed reviews, from people complaining about stomach issues and the need for actual food to feel satiated.  

Photo via Soylent

Nutrients: A powder mostly made up of carbohydrates, including maltodextrin, oat flour, isomaltulose, potato starch, and rice starch, Soylent also comes with an oil blend of canola and fish oil, and is composed of 1-4 and 1-6 glycosidic bonds, which are broken down slowly by the body to prevent a spike in blood sugar.

One whole package contains 2000 calories, 50 percent from carbohydrates, 20 percent from protein, and 30 percent from fat, with 27 grams of fiber, which meets Dietary Guidelines for the average American adult.

While there are no added sugars, Soylent doesn’t necessarily work for all body shapes and sizes.

A fresh batch of Soylent. Photo via Flickr user Arpit Gupta.

How to Eat Soylent: Currently consumed as a liquid, Soylent can cause gut and stomach issues, depending on how much fiber you take with it. So, in the end, Soylent might not be a totally reliable meal replacement, depending on how you adjust to it.

Soylent. Photo by Ɱ via Wikimedia Commons.