Pregnant women who munch through a lot of calories around the time they conceive may be more likely to bear boys than girls.
Fiona Mathews of the University of Exeter, UK, and her colleagues divided 740 British women into three groups according to what they remembered eating in early pregnancy and around the time they conceived. Only 45% of those in the group with the lowest energy intake carried boys, compared with 56% of women in the highest-calorie group.
These data support the Trivers–Willard hypothesis, say the authors, which predicts that females in good condition will have more male offspring.
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Human biology: Boy appétit. Nature 453, 4 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/453004c
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/453004c
