The Myths of Sex Selection through Diet

For centuries, scientists, doctors and even philosophers have come up with numerous theories for selecting a baby's gender. These sex selection theories largely focus on different sexual positions, timing of conception, and changing the pH levels in the female reproductive tract. Some more recent theories have focused on the mother's pre-conception diet. Unlike other sex selection methods, the diet method actually seems to show positive results, though sex selection through diet is still far from guaranteed.

Why Sex Selection?

Throughout human history, couples have desired children of one sex or the other based on cultural and personal motives. Today, sex selection actually can be achieved to a nearly 100% success rate through in vitro fertilization (IVF). However, this technique is only legally allowed in cases where the parents are carriers of one of a few rare genetic disorders, which only affect one gender or the other. In most cases, these disorders affect only males, so the goal of IVF would be to ensure a female child.

Facts about Sex Selection through Diet

A recent study performed in England has shown that certain dietary factors can increase the chances of accurately selecting the sex of a child. The study focused on diets of a large group of women previous to conception. Theoretically, changes to the women's bodies brought about by a slightly different diet made the environment more favorable for one gender over the other.

Factors studied that produced a positive correlation between diet and gender included:

  • Caloric intake. Women who consumed more calories before conception were more likely to give birth to a boy. Fewer pre-conception calories resulted in a slightly higher percentage of female babies.
  • Mineral balance. Women who ate more potassium, such as bananas, were slightly more likely to give birth to a boy. More calcium in the diet seems to correlate with more female babies.
  • Eating breakfast. Perhaps one of the oddest elements of the findings is that women who ate breakfast regularly during the course of the study were more likely to have boys. This might be related to caloric intake, or even to mineral balance, since breakfast cereal seemed to add a slight edge for those wishing to have a boy.

Myths about Sex Selection through Diet

If you wish to try to select the sex of your child through diet, keep these myths in mind:

Sex selection techniques are not guaranteed. Even the study mentioned above only achieve about a 5% higher rate in the targeted gender. IVF is the most reliable technique, and it is not only illegal in most countries, but is also not quite 100% accurate.

  • Using douches or other direct means of changing the pH balance of the vagina has not proven effective, and can even be harmful.
  • Timing of conception or changes in sexual positions are not guaranteed, but at least remain harmless.

The most important myth of all to dispel is that your child's gender should matter. In the long run, what is important is a healthy, happy baby to be cherished.

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