埃克塞特大學(xué)和牛津大學(xué)研究者調(diào)查了740位首次懷孕的英國婦女,，她們并不知道自己孩子的性別,。這些孕婦向研究人員提供了懷孕前和懷孕中的飲食記錄，研究人員根據(jù)飲食的能量攝入將這些孕婦分為三組,。結(jié)果顯示56%的高能量飲食的婦女懷有男孩,。
孕婦飲食營(yíng)養(yǎng)含量高，包括較多鈣質(zhì)和維生素可能有利于男胎生長(zhǎng)，另外調(diào)查證明吃早餐也利于懷男胎,?？茖W(xué)家已經(jīng)在人工授精實(shí)驗(yàn)中發(fā)現(xiàn)，葡萄糖水平對(duì)不同性別的胎兒發(fā)育具有不同影響,。培養(yǎng)液中葡萄糖含量高時(shí),，男性胚胎的發(fā)育受到促進(jìn)，女性胚胎則受到抑制,。
?？巳卮髮W(xué)的Mathews博士說現(xiàn)在發(fā)達(dá)城市生育女孩的概率較大有可能就是由于婦女控制飲食造成的。（生物谷編譯）
生物谷推薦原始出處：
DOI 10.1098/rspb.2008.0105
You are what your mother eats: evidence for maternal preconception diet influencing foetal sex in humans
Fiona Mathews1, Paul J. Johnson2, Andrew Neil3
1Hatherly Laboratories, School of Biosciences, University of Exeter, Prince of Wales Road, Exeter EX4 4PS, UK
2Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Tubney House, Tubney, Oxon OX13 5QL, UK
3Division of Public Health and Primary Health Care, Institute of Health Sciences, University of Oxford, PO Box 777, Oxford OX3 7LF, UK
Facultative adjustment of sex ratios by mothers occurs in some animals, and has been linked to resource availability. In mammals, the search for consistent patterns is complicated by variations in mating systems, social hierarchies and litter sizes. Humans have low fecundity, high maternal investment and a potentially high differential between the numbers of offspring produced by sons and daughters: these conditions should favour the evolution of facultative sex ratio variation. Yet little is known of natural mechanisms of sex allocation in humans. Here, using data from 740 British women who were unaware of their foetus's gender, we show that foetal sex is associated with maternal diet at conception. Fifty six per cent of women in the highest third of preconceptional energy intake bore boys, compared with 45% in the lowest third. Intakes during pregnancy were not associated with sex, suggesting that the foetus does not manipulate maternal diet. Our results support hypotheses predicting investment in costly male offspring when resources are plentiful. Dietary changes may therefore explain the falling proportion of male births in industrialized countries. The results are relevant to the current debate about the artificial selection of offspring sex in fertility treatment and commercial ‘gender clinics’.
