How do astronauts eat in space?

Question

i just thought about it for no reason. yeah i know the food doesn't stay where it is supposed to. how do they swallow it? how can they get it in their stomach to start digestion if there is no gravity?

Answer 1

your throat has muscles that will force food into your stomach regardless of your body position. if you hang upside down, you can still eat because the food is pushed towards your stomach. if gravity was the only reason we got food in our stomach, then food would never get to your stomach when upside down. thats why they can get it in with no gravity.

Answer 2

contrary to what these people are telling you, gravity does play a part in our digestion.. but that's where it stops....

our digestion is slower in reduced gravity, but it will still process the foods.... actually gravity is the enemy of digestion.... the faster it moves through your system, the less nutrients you can absorb....

there's a reason why fitness instructors tell you not to eat before bed.. and that's because when you lay down, there's less force pushing down (part of the force is caused by the gravity of the rest of the material weighing down on the rest) and so it moves through your system slower, and you absorb more of the nutrients from that food... and with this you also absorb more of the 'fat' of the food...

this is also why providing 'food' for people in space and meeting their requirements, requires significantly less then those on earth's surface (but the fact that these foods are specificly designed also does play a major role)

as for the rest, the digestive system is essientally one large, inside out 'snake'... it pushes food through it as well...

PEOPLE TAKE A MINUTE.... to realize you are saying 'effect on the digestive tract' when you mean 'movement of food through the digest tract' (if even that, even that isn't right)

Answer 3

digesting food has nothing to do with gravity, the acid inside your stomach break up all  food molecules and converts into your body tissues, energy,etc. to have good digesting food, do more exercise. in fact it is a reversal, for gravity it is binding an object toward its direction, for digesting it is breaking up molecules then convert to different molecules. why such an explain like that...let me ask these top contributor, what fluid will increase in your stomach if you dont eat for 2 days, and youre really hungry.?

Answer 4

Gravity has no effect on the process of moving food through the digestive tract. My science teacher told me that in order to test whether or not astronauts would be able to eat in space, they did a simple expiriment, they had them held in place upside down and had them eat something. Thanks to peristalsis (the movement of food through the digestive tract by the use of muscles), the food simply went right up the esophagus, then into the stomach.  

Answer 5

gravity has no effect on swallowing your food, it's all about throat and stomach muscles.

Answer 6

They might eat upside down.

Answer 7

Gravity or no gravity, it is not important. Zero gravity atmosphere does not affect food digestion.

Answer 8

*laughing*

You grab it and put it in your mouth or you can just let it "fly in" and you digestive system does the rest because you don't need gravity to get the food going through your digestive system!