Eating Healthy –> Baby Boys ???

Once again, I am subjecting you to two of my pet peeves: 1) Crappy cnn.com article and 2) Inane and insulting commentary on a scientific study.

According to this article (nicely titled “Study shows bananas make baby boys”), women who eat more potassium- and calcium-enriched foods and have cereal for breakfast are more likely to have a baby boy than a baby girl. Now, this might be true (though I doubt it’s as simple as that). But what I find troubling is the fact that the article makes it seem as though women who have unhealthy diets will have girl children, while healthy women will be more likely to have a son.

One of the scientists, Fiona Mathews of Exeter University in Britain, said:

“If you want a boy, eat a healthy diet with a high calorie intake, including breakfast,” she told New Scientist magazine.

However, there were no “diet tips” included in the article for having girl children, besides skipping breakfasts (which is probably NOT a good idea if you are or wish to become preggers). The article only talks about how it is possible to raise the number of male births in this country. Implicit in the article is the outdated notion that more people would want to have boys and not girls.

Babies are great. All babies–boys and girls. The notion that people will try to eat themselves into giving birth to a son, or starve themselves into giving birth to a daughter, is ridiculous.

I really wish that people will stop running with slight scientific correlations all the way to Crazyville.