I LOVE it when people actually use math and science to argue that a scientific finding is wrong, instead of just feelings and speculation! It's about time someone investigated claims made earlier last year that a mother-to-be's diet can influence the gender of her baby. That had many of us scratching our heads, since the father's sperm is the known biological decision-maker on the baby's gender.
(A quick reminder - egg cells always have an X, sperm cells can have either an X or Y. When they join, the offspring is either female (XX) or male (XY).)
OK, so maybe eating a particular diet before getting pregnant can influence the probability of a Y-chromosome-containing sperm fertilizing the egg over an X-chromosome-containing sperm. Either way, the original scientists are sticking to their findings, but the new study seems to pretty convincingly show that the findings are really just reflective of normal chance and probability, not anything special about cereal.
I really hope that no one has been gobbling Cheerios in hopes of getting a son . . .
Author's Note: Sources:
http://www.sciam.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=special-delivery-cereal-not-linked-2009-01-14
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24262928/
http://www.webmd.com/baby/news/20090114/is-moms-diet-a-key-to-her-babys-sex
Editor's Note: For more blogs from Dr. Rabiah, visit Science Chicago's website at: http://www.sciencechicagoblog.com
