Nature Blog Network Future Earth: Oh baby, baby how was I supposed to know.....

Wednesday 23 April 2008

Oh baby, baby how was I supposed to know.....

A link between what women eat before conception and the sex of their baby has been found, says research published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, today. In essence the findings show an increased proportion of boys are born to mothers with good diets incuding cereals.

There is a wealth of information available http://www.childbirth.org/articles/sex.html on influencing foetal gender through diet, pH, timing etc - but the interesting thing here is a reminder that humans are but any other animal responding to genetic imperative and linked to their environment. We are not as disconnected and in control (species-wide) as we might think. The lead author of this study, Fionna Mathews speculates...

"Potentially, males of most species can father more offspring than females, but this can be strongly influenced by the size or social status of the male, with poor quality males failing to breed at all. Females, on the other hand, reproduce 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."

Note to Arjay's sons - try for daughters... there will be leaner times ahead!

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