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GLUTEN-FREE LIFESTYLE:
To the Moon, Mars & Beyond By Vanessa Maltin NFCA Director of Outreach & Programming 3….2….1…..BLAST OFF!! For many Americans, the first memories of the NASA space program date back to Alan Shepard’s launch into space in 1961, John Glenn’s historic orbit around the earth in 1962 and Neil Armstrong’s first step on to the lunar surface in 1969. Over the years, the NASA program has sent rovers to Mars, built a new International Space Station and developed satellites to view stars located at the furthest parts of our galaxy. Yet two questions have consistently been asked throughout space flight history: how do astronauts go to the bathroom and what do astronauts eat. I’ll leave the answer to the first question up to the very informative NASA website www.nasa.gov. For the latter, I’ve got good news….Not only will this month’s Beyond Rice Cakes column demystify how astronauts eat, but will show that a majority of space food is gluten-free! John Glenn, who began his astronaut career during the Mercury program, was the first American to eat in the near-weightless environment. Glenn is said to have found the task of eating in space “fairly easy, but with a limiting menu.” For Glenn and the other Mercury astronauts, food was served in bit-sized cubes, freeze-dried powder, and semi-liquids stored in aluminum tubes—the food was said to be “crumbly” at best. During the second phase of NASA’s manned-spaceflight program, known as Gemini, new developments provided astronauts with bite-sized cubes that were coated in gelatin to reduce the occurrence of crumbling…yummy…however, astronauts also were given food choices including freeze-dried shrimp, chicken, vegetables, pudding and applesauce. The Apollo program, which took America to the moon, was the first time that astronauts were able to use hot water onboard the spacecraft. This improved the taste of freeze-dried food and was the first time that astronauts used utensils in space. By the time the space shuttle program began, astronauts were able to eat the same types of food available on earth and were allowed to select their own menus. Roughly nine months before a scheduled launch date, the astronauts were able to sample a variety of food and beverages and plan out their breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack menus. Food options came in the form of thermostabalized, irradiated, rehydratable and natural forms. Enough space history….what does this mean for you? Museums across the United States—such as the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum—offer a range of freeze-dried food items and energy bars that are available for guests to purchase. These are the same items that astronauts are given the option to eat and are generally gluten-free.  Space
Food Sticks, for example, made major news headlines when they were
released in 1970s and continue to be popular today. The sticks were
developed by the Pillsbury Company in an effort to lend its support to
NASA. A team of food scientists at Pillsbury developed the “long,
chewy” stick with the intention of astronauts sliding it into the
airtight port on the side of their helmet. In 1973, Space Food Sticks
made their way onto the menu for Skylab astronauts, who spent up to 85
days orbiting the earth in the first U.S. space station. The crew ate
the bars every third day of the mission and Dr. Norman Heidelbaugh of
the NASA Johnson Space Center said that “each bar is nutritionally
complete” and contains about 44 calories. Now, being a total space nerd, I was greatly excited to learn that space food is gluten-free. I was even more excited to learn that Space Food Sticks made it onto You Tube. Click the link to watch the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPZ8HHRR1A0 If Space Food Sticks don’t sound completely appetizing to you, there are many other options for future and want-to-be astronauts. Astronaut Ice Cream and Space Strawberries are sweet alternatives to Space Food Sticks. The “astronaut” part of Astronaut Ice Cream comes from a process of freeze drying which removes water from the ice cream by lowering the air pressure to a point where ice shifts from a solid to a gas. The ice cream is placed in a vacuum chamber and frozen until the water crystallizes. The air pressure is lowered, creating a partial vacuum, forcing air out of the chamber; next heat is applied, vaporizing the ice; finally a freezing coil traps the vaporized water. This process continues for hours, resulting in a freeze-dried ice cream slice. Much the same process is used to turn regular strawberries into Space Strawberries.  The process does not really matter because the taste is what counts. As a child, before my diagnosis, I remember one trip to a regional science museum that ended with the purchase of Astronaut Ice Cream—Neopolitan, of course. The sweet, crunchy bar melts in your mouth in a way that is reminiscent of regular ice cream, just without the water. Adding Space Strawberries to cereal, yogurt, muffins, or anything would be a fun way to add flavor and color to sometimes boring food. The floating spaceman on the package is also sure to excite kids, and even some adults who are kids-at-heart. Gluten-free astronaut food has to be one of my favorite discoveries! I hope it will encourage all of you aspiring space explorers. As for myself, maybe I will be an astronaut after all… Additionally, Astronaut Ice Cream in Neopolitan flavor and Space Strawberries sold at the Kennedy Space Flight Center are gluten-free. These products are available at The Space Shop and online at http://www.thespaceshop.com/freezmeal.html |
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