Should you eat pizza to conceive a boy?
Can the sex of our child be influenced by our diet? Psychologists Jean-Baptiste and Anne-Sophie Dayez Ryckebosch question the science to it.
Parenting raises many questions that are more or less worthy. The book 60 Questions and Answers for Amazing Parents responds frankly to all those rumors that we never really know if they are true or not. For example, you’re hoping to get pregnant but, as you are already mother of three daughters, you grab any recipe that may increase your chances of having a boy. Your grandmother told you to eat sweet, but your best friend recommends eating salty. The proof: the unbridled consumption of chips has helped her to make only small guys. In this matter, the opinions differ, and each has their own (good?) advice. But what does science say? Can we really influence the sex of an unborn baby through diet?
British researchers analyzed the diets of 721 pregnant with their first child. At the time of their participation in the study, they do not yet know the sex of their child. They were asked to provide information about their eating habits before conception and during the first moments of pregnancy. To do this, they filled very detailed questionnaires on their intake of more than 150 foods and for each of them, the amount consumed. They also kept a diary noting everything they ate every day. At the birth of children, the researchers were able to link the gender of these and the diet of their mothers.
NO RECIPE FOR A BOY
Results? It seems that a particular diet is related to a higher probability of giving birth to a boy: a greater calorie diet, and a wider variety of nutrients (potassium, calcium and vitamins C, E and B12) . In summary, a woman who ingests more calories, is more likely to have a boy. And all this should be the regime before conception! According to researchers, the ideal would be to increase caloric energy intake by about 400 calories a day. Indeed, excessive weight gain before and during pregnancy can affect the health of the mother, reduce fertility (if obese) and increase the risk of complications. So rather than seek a foolproof method, we suggest you continue to feed yourself “normally” and accept that there is a one in two chance of having a boy.
Source: Mathews, F., Johnson, PJ, & Neil, A. (2008). You are what your mother eats: Evidence for maternal preconception diet Influencing fetal sex in humans. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 275 (1643), 1661-1668.
Clara Crochemore
