Healthy breakfast? Your baby may be a boy
Wednesday, 23 April 2008 Ben HirschlerAFP/Reuters
Women on low-calorie diets or who skip breakfast at the time of conception are more likely to give birth to girls, UK scientists say.
Research by the universities of Exeter and Oxford provides the first evidence that a child's sex is associated with the mother's diet, and higher energy intake is linked to males.
"This research may help to explain why in developed countries, where many young women choose to have low-calorie diets, the proportion of boys born is falling," says Dr Fiona Mathews of the University of Exeter.
The latest findings are published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
There has been a small but consistent decline, of about one per 1000 births annually, in the proportion of boys being born in industrialised countries over the past 40 years.
In humans, going without breakfast may be interpreted by the body as signalling low food availability, since it depresses levels of blood sugar.
Although sex is genetically determined by fathers, it is known that high levels of glucose encourage the growth and development of male embryos while inhibiting female ones. The exact mechanism for this is unclear.
Mathews and colleagues studied 740 first-time pregnant mothers in the UK and found 56% of those in the group with the highest energy intake at conception had sons, compared with 45% in the lowest group.
Beside racking up a higher calorie count, the group that produced more males were also more likely to have eaten a wider range of nutrients, including potassium, calcium and vitamins C, E and B12.
The odds of a male also went up sharply "for women who consumed at least one bowl of breakfast cereal daily compared with those who ate less than or equal to one bowl of week," the study reports.
In evolutionary terms, this correlation may make sense.
Males' breeding potential is strongly influenced by fitness, while females breed more consistently.
"If a mother has plentiful resources then it can make sense to invest in producing a son because he is likely to produce more grandchildren than would a daughter. However, in leaner times having a daughter is a safer bet," Mathews says.
The mechanism for diet affecting sex is not yet understood.
But scientists know from in vitro fertilisation research that higher levels of glucose encourage the growth and development of male embryos while inhibiting female embryos. OK I AM LIKE A PIGGY!
IN THIS CASE IT WOULD BE TRUE FOR ME! I HAVE NEVER BEEN ON A LOW CALORIE DIET! SO FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE A NEED FOR A BOY, STOCK UP ON THE POTATO CHIPS AND DOUGHNUTS!
5 comments:
Yes, as you know. :)
haha wow. Not sure if I believe. But I guess you never know! I'll have to ask angie and bekah what their diets were considering Angie has 3 girls and only 1 boy and Bekah as 4 boys and 1 girl.
Well, I don't eat breakfast, but I also don't eat a low-cal diet. Guess we'll have to leave it up to Seth!
Lets hope this is true because i never skip breakfast. Are boys in my future? Lets hope!
I often skipped breakfast before getting pregnant but I am still having a boy. I guess I will have to do something different with my calorie intake next time so we can have one of each.
Post a Comment