Can diet influence your baby’s sex?

The girl/boy diet

Researchers at the universities of Exeter and Oxford say the low-cal connection might be one reason behind the ongoing decline in the number of baby boys being born in industrialized nations, including the US, where so many women diet. Scientists have long scratched their collective head over the possible reasons for the fall and have pointed to environmental pollutants and pesticides as possible factors. Now study author Dr Fiona Mathews, of the University of Exeter, is pointing to the process of evolution as a possible culprit. “For most species, the number of offspring a male can father exceeds the number a female can give birth to,” she says. “But conditions have to be favorable – poor-quality male specimens may fail to breed at all, whereas females reproduce more consistently. If a woman 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, thus contributing to the survival of the species. However, in leaner times having a daughter is a safer bet.”

It isn’t the first time diet has been linked with gender – one popular natural sex selection method theorizes that a diet high in certain types of food can alter the quality of vaginal secretions, making them either more acid or alkaline, and that this can influence whether and X or Y sperm fertilizes the egg. But before you decide to start skipping meals in order to get that longed-for baby girl you might want to keep in mind that not eating a healthful diet could prevent you from conceiving at all.

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