埃克塞特大学和牛津大学研究者调查了740位首次怀孕的英国妇女，她们并不知道自己孩子的性别。这些孕妇向研究人员提供了怀孕前和怀孕中的饮食记录，研究人员根据饮食的能量摄入将这些孕妇分为三组。结果显示56%的高能量饮食的妇女怀有男孩。
孕妇饮食营养含量高，包括较多钙质和维生素可能有利于男胎生长，另外调查证明吃早餐也利于怀男胎。科学家已经在人工授精实验中发现，葡萄糖水平对不同性别的胎儿发育具有不同影响。培养液中葡萄糖含量高时，男性胚胎的发育受到促进，女性胚胎则受到抑制。
埃克塞特大学的Mathews博士说现在发达城市生育女孩的概率较大有可能就是由于妇女控制饮食造成的。（生物谷编译）
生物谷推荐原始出处：
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’.
