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Four weeks...nearly a month.  But my time is now short; there are few potato plants left to harvest.  I will certainly exceed 30 days, but I'm not very sure I'll make it into the 6th week. 

A couple of weeks ago I got an email which opened up a discussion about sodium, so during week four when I encountered my first problem related to the diet that was the first thing I thought of (thanks Alan!).  This discussion made me somewhat sensitive to it; so perhaps I'm just having a psychosomatic attack about it, but the symptoms sure felt real!

There are certain nutritients that I am low in (vitamin B-12; vitamin E; riboflavin; calcium; selenium; sodium and zinc; possibly protein, though I do meet the RDA for all the amino acids so I don't think that is very likely).  Most of these were brought up to RDA by my multivitamin.  But not calcium, selenium or sodium.  Calcium is not a nutrient that you will develop deficiency symptoms for a very long time.  Selenium is very unlikely (not to mention selenium is one of those minerals that you can pick up pretty easily when you eat fresh root crops--and I've certainly had plenty of those!)

Another possibility is solanine poisoning.  Solanine is found in the green spots on potatoes.  Potatoes are a member of the nightshade family, who use solanine to prevent/reduce herbivory by poisoning the herbivors that eat the plants.  My diet is so heavy in potatoes that perhaps small amounts are getting by.   However I am pretty careful about it, and have been trimming the green parts off religiously, so this is unlikely.

Although I have been eating a fair number of calories, it could be just not quite enough.  During week 3 I only consumed 1310 kcal/day, which is pretty low.  But again I don't think this is the cause because you should be able to live indefinitely on that many calories.

The problem first showed up on Thursday.  I was up on the ladder working when it was like I hit a wall.  I started feeling odd, felt like I had the shakes (without actually shaking) and suddenly felt famished.  I’d been cooking some potatoes in the microwave, so when they were done I ate them and lay down to read for an hour.  Within a couple of hours I felt fine again, though still hungry.  The next day I felt ok in the morning, but in the afternoon I had a similar experience with a tight feeling across my chest.  I had really upped by food consumption, and also really dug into the turnips and swiss chard (the best sources of sodium that I have). 

Saturday I wasn't any better, and if anything worse.  So I called Kraig and asked him to bring me some salt.  He brought it over and poked it through the missing dead-bolt hole.  I mixed up a glass of salt-water (1 gram salt to 6 oz water and drank it right off.  Then I used another 3 grams of salt in my food, which really helped the flavor, among other things!  This seemed to help immensely.  I've eaten another 3 grams today [Sunday]; we'll see if things continue to improve. 

I'm pretty disappointed about having to import.  But better safe than sorry--and that is what this is all about: finding problems so we can have solutions when we want to build a CELSS in space.  Now I need to figure out how to combat it in the future; perhaps raise some plants that tend to enrich it, or perhaps raise some animals for their blood (which is very high in salt).

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Foods are starting to run out.  I only have a few turnips left (at least that have anything on them).  Onions and carrots are low.  Potatoes: I have about 20 plants left.  I usually dig between 2 and 3 per day, so I've got less than a week's worth left since I plan to keep some for seed potatoes.  I have 1.5 heads of cabbage left; this should be plenty unless I start eating a lot more than I have been.  Tomatoes are holding up very well--as a matter of a fact I've increased my consumption to 4 a day (started at 2 per day!).  The sunflowers still aren't ripe yet, though I may eat them anyhow, since they are getting very close.  The lettuce continues to be the star; it is growing as fast as I pick it.  Spinach is about out; swiss chard is holding up pretty well; the cauliflower is growing but still kind of small; a second batch of strawberries might make it but they are still pretty small now.

I have put in a fair amount of work on various files; here are the links:
Foods eaten: fourth week
Mars Base Zero Diary
Questions (lots more from week four--keep them coming!!)
Crops
Many individual plant files (but not all--they aren't all harvested yet!) linked from:
And of course Update Week Four, which is this information!

Through the dirt, to the Stars!
Ray C.
Mars Base Zero inhabitant
 

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