A pregnant model showcases a costume during a maternity fashion show, organized by a company that caters to pregnant women, in New Delhi April 12, 2008.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)Photo Gallery>>> A research shows that having a hearty appetite, eating potassium-rich foods including bananas, and not skipping breakfast all seem to raise the odds of having a boy, media reported Friday.
The British research is billed as the first in humans to show a link between a woman's diet and whether she has a boy or girl.
University of Exeter researcher Fiona Mathews, the study's lead author, said the findings also fit with fertility research showing that male embryos aren't likely to survive in lab cultures with low sugar levels. Skipping meals can result in low blood sugar levels.
The research involved about 700 first-time pregnant women in the United Kingdom who didn't know the sex of their fetuses. They were asked about their eating habits in the year before getting pregnant.
Among women with the highest calorie intake before pregnancy (but still within a normal, healthy range), 56 percent had boys, versus 45 percent of the women with the lowest calorie intake.
Women who ate at least one bowl of breakfast cereal daily were 87 percent more likely to have boys than those who ate no more than one bowlful per week. Cereal is a typical breakfast in Britain and in the study, eating very little cereal was considered a possible sign of skipping breakfast, Mathews said.
Compared with the women who had girls, those who had boys ate an additional 300 milligrams of potassium daily on average, "which links quite nicely with the old wives' tale that if you eat bananas you'll have a boy," Mathews said.
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