Mars Base Zero

>It seems that your diet is very protein deficient? As legumes, brown
>rice,
>etc.. are commonly eaten in combination to provide complete
>complement of
>essential amino acids, and even then it can be difficult, especially
>if you
>had a rigorous routine during the day, which would up your >requirements.
No, actually my diet is quite sufficient in protein in a general way.
I was rather surprised that this was the case, with primarily
potatoes to eat. But when I run the analysis it comes out fine
(average daily intake in %RDA, except potatoes which is in grams and
calories which is in kcal):
Week Tyr Lys Phe Leu Val Met Cys Try Thr Iso Potato Calories
One 118 267 145 198 212 164 133 273 246 184 1,253 1,470
Two 144 326 178 243 259 199 162 332 299 225 1,540 1,778
Three 106 240 130 179 190 147 118 244 221 166 1,125 1,311

So, as you can see, my protein consumption is fine...

>Vegetarian diets are necessarily deficient in B-12, requiring
>supplementation, so no suprises there. Mineral content of soil is >very
>important for mineral content in plants - have you had the soil
>tested? If
>so, what type of tests have been done?
No, this is something we'd really like to do, especially for zinc and
selenium which are two minerals my diet is far short of--according to
the program--but for these minerals the amount eaten is more dependent
on the amount in the soil than any other factor. This is because they
are usually passively transmitted by plants: they don't need much, if any.

>BTW, I've thought for a long time that dietary supplementation for >long
>duration travels will not only be a necessity, but useful as well for
>bulk
>(or lack of) purposes. Besides, supplementation has occured for
>centuries on
>sea voyages - hence limeys, krauts and so on.
Very true. Though one problem with supplimentation in a closed
ecosystem is that the minerals will find their way into the soil,
making it too salty (not NaCl, other kinds of salts). This isn't a
problem in short or mid duration ecosystems (0-10 years) but could be
a problem in long duration (15+ years).

Ray C.
Mars Base Zero inhabitant day 25