Eat cereals for breakfast and have a son?

Sales of Kellogg's would skyrocket in rural India if one were to lay hands on this news item.

Makes me wonder if our habit of eating Kellogg's all these years (6 ?) has anything to do with the birth of Lil' General. Alright, alright I know it's only during the period of conception that the research talks about. Whatever it is - son or daughter, I swear by the bowl of cereals poured in cold milk. Healthy, easily digestible, makes way for a great appetite for lunch, no preparation time and fast to eat!

New research by UK scientists provides the first evidence that a child’s sex is associated with the mother’s diet
MUMBAI MIRROR BUREAU


A new study by the Universities of Exeter and Oxford, shows a clear link between higher energy intake around the time of conception and the birth of sons.
The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, focused on 740 first-time pregnant mothers in the UK, who did not know the sex of their foetus. They were asked to provide records of their eating habits before and during the early stages of pregnancy.
They were then split into three groups according to the number of calories consumed per day around the time they conceived.
Fifty-six per cent of the women in the group with the highest energy intake at conception had sons, compared with 45 per cent in the lowest group.
Besides consuming more calories, women who had sons were more likely to have eaten a wider range of nutrients, including potassium, calcium and vitamins C, E and B12.
There was also a strong correlation between women eating breakfast cereals and producing sons.
“This research findings are very interesting,” said Dr Fiona Mathews of the University of Exeter. “Here we have evidence of a ‘natural’ mechanism that means that women appear to be already controlling the sex of their offspring by their diet.”
Scientists already know that in many animals, more sons are produced when a mother has plentiful resources or is high ranking. The phenomenon has been most extensively studied in invertebrates, but is also seen in horses, cows and some species of deer.
The explanation is thought to lie with the evolutionary drive to produce descendants.
“Potentially, males of most species can lead to more offspring than females, but poor quality males fail to breed at all. Females, on the other hand, reproduce more consistently,” Dr Mathews explained. “If a mother has plentiful resources then it makes 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.”
Although sex is genetically determined by fathers, the real mechanism is not yet completely understood in mammals, but it is known from IVF research that high levels of glucose encourage the growth and development of male embryos while inhibiting female embryos.
In humans, skipping breakfast depresses glucose levels and so may be interpreted by the body as indicating poor environmental conditions and low food availability.
The group of women taking part in the study was representative of the UK average in terms of the weight, health and lifestyle.
Although this research provides the first link between a human mother’s diet and the sex of her offspring, there is still no evidence that diet during pregnancy – rather than around the time of conception – plays any role in the sex of a foetus.