Does space affect an astronaut’s digestion?

We chew our food, swallow it, and our stomach goes to work on digesting! Our bodies absorb the nutrients they need and then we poop out the rest. Here on Earth, the whole process takes somewhere between one to three days. But what about in space? Do astronauts digest food as quickly as they do on Earth? We reached out to space scientist and science communicator Maggie Aderin-Pocock to get the answer! Got a question you’re chewing on? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we'll spit out the answer.

You can listen to Does space affect an astronaut’s digestion? online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Does space affect an astronaut’s digestion? is an episode from Moment of Um by Lemonada Media.

This episode is 4:53 long.

This episode was published on May 15, 2025.

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