Can A Pregnant Woman's Diet Affect Baby's Sex?
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women who ate lots of breakfast cereal, salt and potassium were more likely to give birth to baby boys.
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The high-school biology explanation is fairly straightforward. The male determines the sex of offspring: If the man contributes a sperm bearing an X chromosome, then the embryo becomes female. A Y chromosome produces a male baby. It's a matter of chance.
And as far as Young is concerned, that's the end of the story. "The female has nothing to do with the gender of the child," he says.
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she stands behind her statistical methods and her findings.
"The women who ate more (calories), including women who were more likely to eat cereal in the morning, were more likely to bear boys than girls," says Mathews. "And it's highly unlikely that this occurred by chance."
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Not all fertilized eggs make it to birth, so perhaps the mother's environment, diet or overall health does promote the survival of one gender over the other.
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In her study, women who consumed the most calories had a 56 percent chance of having a boy. Those who ate the fewest calories had a 45 percent chance of giving birth to a boy.
Either way, it's close to 50-50 odds.
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eating more bananas, cereal or salt
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Related NPR Stories
- July 18, 2005Examining Environmental Factors In Sex Ratio
- Feb. 27, 2006Revisiting The Baby Gender Mentor
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