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on this science wednesday let's head out

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to the payload operations integration

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center at marshall space flight center

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in huntsville alabama now lori meggs is

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there and lori we're talking about

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nutrition and well-being for astronauts

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today

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as well as for here on earth kelly the

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number one priority for nasa is to keep

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our space station astronauts safe and

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healthy to do that we have to understand

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what really happens to our bodies in

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microgravity

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now there are two things two experiments

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that have looked at this

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one right now is the pro-k experiment

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looks at the nutritional intake of

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astronauts it's ongoing and the

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nutrition experiment which wrapped up

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earlier this year dr scott smith he is

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the lead for the nutrition and

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biochemistry

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lab at johnson space center and he tells

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us what we've learned from these

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experiments and where we're going

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i've always been very happy to say that

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we were the first blood collection on

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board the international space station

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we'd collected blood on shuttle we'd

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collect the blood on skylab but it took

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several years until we had enough until

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we had the right hardware onboard

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station to allow us to collect blood

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during flight on station

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anything you can share with us so far we

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found we've found several things

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the biggest thing i think we found is

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that

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we found metabolites in the blood

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that are reflective of a specific

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biochemical pathway what we call the one

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carbon metabolism pathway

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that are different

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in individuals that had vision issues

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during space flight

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okay

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and

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the the one carbon metabolism pathway is

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a very nutrition rich pathway it's got

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several vitamins tied into it vitamin b6

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vitamin b12 folate biotin

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a number of things that are involved

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which is why we were looking at it

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it wasn't until we started

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teasing out crew members that had vision

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issues

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and crew members that didn't have vision

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issues that allowed us to to see that

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there was a there appeared to be a

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relationship

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the striking thing

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was not only that we had differences in

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blood levels of these metabolites

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in individuals with vision issues

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the bigger thing i think is that we had

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differences

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pre-flight

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and after we ruled out a number of other

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things and looked at the data as many

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ways as we could

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we

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genetic differences

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could be causing this biochemical

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difference which could be related to

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these changes in vision

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and we're now doing a follow-on study

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which isn't really a flight study

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although we're doing it with the

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astronauts

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we're actually going back in and looking

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at their genes for specific enzymes in

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this pathway to see if we can then

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relate the actual genetic information

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to um to vision issues

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and how can this help us here on earth

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it could be a lot of things i mean we

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could still you know i i always say as a

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caveat you know

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we're very excited about these data we

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think we're going down the right path we

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could be wrong so

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this could be a fluke when we look at

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the scientific literature in the medical

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literature about this this pathway

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people with alterations in this pathway

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also tend to have increased risk of

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stroke

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increased risk of migraines

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increased risk of of other types of

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vascular diseases

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and it's possible that again if

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if our data help

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flush this out

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um that this may also have implications

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for

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understanding of health and physiology

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in

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everyday humans

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and then the second experiment is what

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we call pro k which is getting at

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the

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and what we believe in that experiment

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is that the ratio of animal protein and

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potassium in your diet

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may have an effect on your bone health

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that is the more

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the more animal protein you consume the

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more red meat you consume

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and the less fruits and vegetables you

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consume which are rich in potassium

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the more

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breakdown you see so

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the converse is yes that we believe that

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by

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increasing fruits and vegetables

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decreasing red meat and perhaps

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increasing fish intake or

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vegetable protein intake that that may

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be one made one way to help mitigate the

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bone loss that we see in astronauts and

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joining me now is someone who knows

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about nutrition and our diets and how

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that affects everyday life is linda

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stakely she is a nutritionist and

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registered dietitian at the huntsville

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hospital wellness center linda thanks

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for joining us today

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you heard dr smith and what he had to

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say tell us your thoughts on how that

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translates to us here on earth well when

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i think about an astronaut's diet and

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people that are up at the payload

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station i'm thinking of more of a

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perfect diet because it's been

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formulated they've had biochemists work

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on it they've had dietitians work on it

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scientists so it's more of a perfect

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diet but here on earth our diets are not

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so perfect

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and the one of the studies that he

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looked at was the pro k

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and they're decreasing the the protein

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but increasing the potassium in the diet

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and that has to do with bone density and

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so i brought along a plate with me today

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just to show how we could how we can

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compute that into real life it looks

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pretty good

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it does

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if you would take your plate and divide

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it into

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four quadrants what we'd like to see

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people to do is have a fourth of your

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plate as your protein and this is a

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three ounce portion of chicken and

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that's really about all we need and then

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a quarter of your plate would be your

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starch and this just happens to be brown

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rice but i like to see half of your

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plate as fruits and vegetables and i

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like to see the more colorful vegetables

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that have the antioxidants in it but the

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thing about this is you're getting more

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potassium when you're eating fruits and

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vegetables and so you get an added

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benefit when you have extra potassium in

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your diet to lower your blood pressure

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so not only does it have bone density

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but it helps to lower your blood

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pressure so how much protein potassium

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i'm sorry do we need we need probably

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about 3 500 ml equivalents of potassium

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a day and we easily get that if we

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include fruits and vegetables in our

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diet but the problem is we are a meat

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and potato society so it's more half our

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plates meat and half of our plate is

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potatoes so we need to include more

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fruits and vegetables in the diet to get

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that potassium that we need and probably

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if you're eating 45 to 55 grams of

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protein for a female you're getting

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enough for a male probably no more than

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about 65 grams unless you're really

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a weight in weight training and then you

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might need as much as 100 110 or 20

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grams of protein but most people don't

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need that much but that's what we end up

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getting we talk about the perfect diets

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of those in space but but they're

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sometimes in a stressful situation tell

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us how stress relates to what we eat and

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how that affects well when we're

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stressed here on earth we don't eat

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right we don't choose right and and when

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we feel those stress hormones we tend to

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want something salty something sweet

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something fatty and so we make bad

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choices we don't go and eat a good

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vegetable lunch or dinner so the stress

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can cause you to drink more coffee which

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is going to increase the stress it can

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cause you to drink more alcohol

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to skip meals and to overeat when you do

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eat at meal time so a stressful diet is

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obviously going to affect your immune

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system it's going to affect how you feel

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how you perform so

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eating more healthy foods and more like

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dr smith is talking about

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less protein more fruits and vegetables

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is going to be the healthy approach but

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that's not what we turn to when we're

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stressed we turn to something in fact i

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asked you earlier what is is stressed

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spelled backwards it is dessert it is

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dessert and that's what people tend to

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go to something sweet you know

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especially women you know we oftentimes

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want that piece of cake or we want that

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cookie or that that sweet after a meal

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and many times it's just because we're

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feeling so stressed and uptight and it's

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that carbohydrate which releases

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serotonin it's that feel-good hormone

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and it kind of helps us get through it

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briefly he talked a little bit about the

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the b vitamin yeah too uh tell us what

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are some sources of b vitamins well your

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b vitamins mainly come from your breads

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and cereals but the problem with that is

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so many of our breads and cereals are

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highly processed what you want to look

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for on your label is a hundred percent

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whole wheat or a hundred percent whole

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grain product so if your label does not

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say whole grain or whole wheat then it

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is a highly processed food white bread

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uh the iron kids bread the white wheat

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bread honey wheat bread all of that is

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very processed and what you really want

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is 100 whole wheat

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or whole grain because the nutrients

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have not been removed and they're there

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for us and they're better utilized by

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the body than what they just throw in

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there

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we also talked about bone health that's

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a big deal on space station what what

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other factors influence but there are a

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lot of factors here on earth that

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influence bone health if you are doing

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load-bearing exercise that is going to

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be a really important thing to to help

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you to strengthen your bones but also

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calcium is important and calcium that

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has calcium that you also have vitamin d

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at the same time helps to make those

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bones stronger so

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calcium in the diet load-bearing

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exercise those are important things and

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again too much protein in the diet is

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not going to be healthy for the bones

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here on earth as well as in space how

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much protein should we have

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about 45 to 55 for women and probably 65

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to 75 for men don't need any more than

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that you know three ounces of meat at

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lunch and three ounces at dinner's

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but what happens when we go out to eat

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we get five to six ounces at lunch and

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maybe even more at dinner

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and when we eat so much meat we don't

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eat those vegetables and that's the

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problem

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all right and i know it probably excites

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you to hear about what do you think when

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you hear about nutritional studies in

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space oh it's wonderful it's so exciting

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that they're doing all of this and then

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we take that information and we can

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apply it here on earth

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and i love the fact that the diets that

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they uh prepare for the astronauts are

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so carefully planned to give them

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everything that they need and if it were

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just so here on earth and so simple but

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we have a variety of choices and we

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oftentimes make the wrong choices so

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maybe all this good information to show

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how well our astronauts do in space will

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help people to realize if they just ate

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better

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they would be a lot healthier so much

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good information thank you linda so much

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for being with us today linda stakely

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from huntsville hospital wellness center

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now let's take a live look into the

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payload operations integration center

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they've just wrapped up working on the

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in space experiment this morning they're

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putting some things away for that and

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planning for a new crew so that'll do it

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for us here from the payload operations

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integration center at nasa's marshall