Do you have your heart set on having a boy? Looking for a way to stack the odds in your favor? Heard that changing your diet may help?
Theres no proven evidence for a special diet to conceive a boy or, for that matter, to conceive a girl. According to the Mayo Clinic, Theres not much the average couple can do to affect a babys sex.
But there are some proponents who believe otherwise. Here, we take a look at the theories and their evidence or lack thereof.
Sex and gender are evolving terms. In this article, biological sex refers to a babys X and Y chromosomes, with XX determining female and XY determining male.
Although theres no clinical proof that changing your diet can help you conceive a boy, there are many supporters of traditional and natural remedies that feel it can. One of the most popular suggestions supported by anecdotal information is to make your body more alkaline.
This unproven remedy suggests that people with a more alkaline (high pH) environment are more likely to conceive a boy. This method recommends:
While theres no evidence backing this theory, theres rarely any harm in adding fresh fruits and veggies to your diet!
If you want to conceive a girl, on the other hand, this theory suggests increasing your bodys acidity.
A 2008 study of 740 women concluded there was a higher probability of having a male baby when the mother increased her calorie intake and ate breakfast cereals. Researchers hypothesized that this may be because higher blood glucose levels favor having a boy.
However, the United Kingdoms National Health Service (NHS) suggests the conclusions of this study include inaccuracies that make it ill advised to suggest that increasing a womans caloric intake and eating breakfast cereals could increase chances of having a boy.
Different folks have different opinions about having a boy or girl. For some parents, its about balancing out their family with boy children and girl children. According to a 2011 Gallup poll, the most popular reasons for wanting a boy include:
With reproductive technologies like in vitro fertilization (IVF), you might have high-tech options such as sperm sorting and preimplantation genetic screening to improve your chances of having a boy. Sex selection done this way is much more common now than it was just a few years ago, when Chrissy Teigen and John Legend did it.
However, this practice has a wide range of ethical, religious, legal, and social implications and is considered controversial. If youre doing IVF and have this option, keep in mind that its not necessarily a purely medical decision.
Planning on getting pregnant? You might have heard that certain diets can impact fertility.
There have been studies about the relationship of diet to fertility, but they lack the details to be of real use to people trying to conceive. For example, theres positive fertility impact of vitamins and minerals such as folic acid, omega-fatty acid, and vitamin B12, but its not always clear how much of these supplements to take.
Its good for both men and women to eat a healthy diet whether theyre trying to get pregnant or not. Prenatal vitamins (with vitamin B12 and folic acid) are already routinely recommended for people trying to conceive.
This desire to have a baby of a specific sex is often met with suggestions that havent been clinically proven, such as changing your diet one way to increase your chance of having a girl or another way to have a boy. However, theres no scientific evidence that this works.
If youre focused on having a boy, talk to your doctor about your hopes. They may have a suggestion or two and, importantly, theyll have advice and recommendations on helping you have a healthy, happy baby, whether it turns out to be a boy or a girl.
Original post:
Diet to Conceive a Boy: Different Theories and If They're True - Healthline
