Researchers from Exeter and Oxford U asked 740 pregnant women (all first-time moms) to keep a food diary during their gestation periods. Their findings? That women who ate more food and more nutrients were 24% more likely to give birth to a boy (specifically, 56% of the women in the group who ate the most gave birth to boys). The average woman who gave birth to a male consumed 2,413 calories a day and ate foods containing potassium, calcium and vitamins C, E and B12. The odds of having a boy were also higher among women who consumed one bowl of cereal every day (though the researchers didn't specify whether the bowl was eaten at breakfast or not).
But some people are wary of the stats, saying that a man's sperm ultimately decides whether a child will be male or female, and that diet has little or nothing to do with it.
If anything, hopefully the study will remind and encourage pregnant women to eat a healthy, well-balanced meal no matter what sex their baby turns out to be.
4-23-2008 @3:43PM kasey said... I wonder if the converse could be true instead. Where it's because the baby is male (or going to be male) that the women wants to eat more and not necessarily the eating more that causes the baby to be male. Physically, most guys are bigger than girls so it makes sense that they would need more nutrients. I guess more research will have to be done.
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4-23-2008 @4:13PM Rachel said... I'm a little confused. In all my studies (science in university, but this info dates right back to high school) it seemed pretty clear that the critical XY chromosome that determines the gender is carried by the sperm. It's not just a matter of being "wary of the stats"... it's being aware of the facts. Kasey brings up a good point. The stats don't indicate the cause and effect. They just note an interesting relationship. And given existing knowledge, claiming "food determines sex" is a pretty unlikely conclusion.
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4-23-2008 @11:00PM Charlotte said... And do you have any idea how hard it is to just keep something down during the first trimester????
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4-23-2008 @7:55PM Sumara said... Rachel - without going into too much unneccessary detail on a food blog... a woman's diet affects the acidity or alkalinity of her birth canal and cervical area, which has an affect on which sperm reach the egg. Male sperm favour an alkaline environment I think, and female favour acidic (coulod be the other way around, I forget). So yes, it's the sperm that determine the gender but the conditions in the female *can* determine which ones have a better chance of fertilising the egg.
A google/whatever search will find lots of info and stories about people using diet to increase their chances of gender selection.
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4-24-2008 @12:13PM Rachel said... I hear what you're saying Sumara, and believe me I'm well aware of those facts. But is says, "Researchers from Exeter and Oxford U asked 740 pregnant women (all first-time moms) to keep a food diary during their gestation periods." As in, _they were already pregnant_. This post makes it seem like it's possible to skew the sex after conception just by eating a certain way. That's not what the stats suggest.
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4-24-2008 @1:18PM kevjohn said... Hmm, I don't know about this but I have theorized that eating a vegan diet can cause your penis to fall off. Maybe this can happen in the womb as well.
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