Boston (dbTechno) – According to a new study, the eating habits of a mother around the time of conception could determine whether or not she has a baby boy or a baby girl. Eating a high-calorie diet around the time the mother becomes pregnant can make her more likely to have a baby boy.
The research was carried out at Oxford and Exeter universities. They talked with 740 women, asking them about their eating patterns in the year before conception.
They divided the women into three groups, a group who had high-calorie diets, medium-calorie diets, and low-calorie diets.
They found that 56% of women who had high-calorie diets ended up giving birth to baby boys.
This compared to 45% of women who had low-calorie diets.
None of the women, even in the high-calorie diet group, were considered obese. None knew the gener of their baby during their pregnancy either.
This is the first time researchers have been able to link a mother’s diet to the gender of their infant.
By looking more closely at the diets, they found that women who had high potassium intake, meaning bananas, meant that they were more likely to have a boy.
59% of women who ate breakfast cereal every day had baby boys, compared to 43% of women who rarely or never ate cereal.
Researchers did warn though that purposely having a high-calorie diet could be harmful.
The study has been published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
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