And no, not that kind of sex. Get your mind out of the gutter! This is a knitting blog, after all…
I really should stop drinking Diet Coke when watching the news. My nose still hurts this morning after snorting a big mouthful out last evening after seeing a certain news item (don’t you hate it when that happens?)
Long story short: do you want to conceive a boy? Then eat…
That’s right. (And JJ was right chuffed, as you can imagine…).
You see, some people got together and did yet another study (this time in the UK).
740 pregnant first-time mothers were asked about their eating habits before and during early-stage pregnancy:
The study found that 56 per cent of the women in the group with the highest caloric intake at conception had boys, compared to 45 per cent in the group with the lowest energy intake.
Hmm – does this mean that boy children have more fat in their brains? That would make some sense…
The women who had sons were also more likely to have eaten a wider variety of nutrients, such as potassium, calcium and vitamins C, E and B12.
But this begs the question: how about Vitamin B?
I guess I’ll have to read the whole study to find out, as the rest of the sound byte was lacking in some detail, saying only:
Women who ate breakfast cereals were also more likely to have sons.
Now, if I hadn’t been paying attention I would have just assumed that this was a snippet from some conversation that a bunch of Greek grandmothers were having with a young woman. You know, old wives’ tales time honoured traditions as to how to keep the family name going.
However, the Greek yiayiadhes wouldn’t be using such high-falutin’ language to describe the theory:
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.
And here I thought this trend was simply proof of social Darwinism – or did I just read that in some other study?!?
Well, you know what? I can write some pretty fancy language, too, when I so choose. So now I’m off to write a funding proposal to Health Canada for a study of my very own:
Can knitters influence the gender of their children based on what colour of yarn they are knitting with when they try to conceive?
I mean, imagine how business would soar at the yarn shops! This could bring down yarn prices for the rest of us…
So, what gender of child do you think would result if knitting with, for example, this:
Or would the seacell content skew the results (because this is, of course, Handmaiden Sea Silk)? I’m so confused…
Good thing I’m not planning to conceive any time soon. With all the oatmeal in the house, all the mystery would be taken out of the process.
Bespoke By Brouhaha 
I have a feeling that knitting with that while pregnant would result in a grape.
Nevertheless, I want that yarn too.
I have 3 male children and can heartily say that I the beer before conception, not the oatmeal.
I also used primarily green yarn before they were born…I think that contributed to the large amounts of snot.
I have 3 male children and can heartily say that I had the beer before conception, not the oatmeal.
I also used primarily green yarn before they were born…I think that contributed to the large amounts of snot.
Or result in an eggplant…….even worse.
Hey – what do you have against eggplants, S?!?!?
A grape child sounds kinda cool… I don’t know about the snot though. Must stay away from green in future.
I saw that story on the news this morning and I have to admit that they may be onto something, I usually don’t eat breakfast and I had a girl. Like Holly, I am sure that beer played a big part in the actual conception, though.
Amy, sounds like the beer to me… from my representative study sample of 2. Don’t think we’d get money for a study encouraging drinking before conception in this climate, though. Back to the drawing board…
I’d sign up for the study – but perhaps as some sort of control sample as even unlimited amounts of yarn could not at this point in time convince me to reproduce!
No wonder I am a girl… I grew for 9 months on beer and second hand smoke!! Finally an explanation 🙂
Soo – thank you for volunteering. I’m with you personally as regards reproducing (although my view is a bit more extreme, starting with “when hell” and ending with “freezes over”). So, if you’d like, you could help me conduct the study. I think we’d have the level of detachment required to do it properly. What say you?
Bronwen: ditto – except I don’t think that my mother drank beer. However, she was apparently told by the MD to drink red wine when pregnant. This explains a lot.
Yes, I smirked too when I heard about this study, and then got a bit shirty as I reassumed the mantle of my old job: for a start, the sample size is relatively small. Secondly, there is no mention in the abstract about the statistical significance of the results. I would suggest that 56% compared to 45% is not overtly significant (and it’s pretty p*ss poor if they can’t even round up the percentages properly for the abstract). My (ex-professional) impression of this study based on the abstract? Total hogwash.
Happy Wednesday!
Ahhhhhh, now I know……….two girls and a boy. Musta been eating more when I conceived the son and heir! But I can’t remember because he was conceived in a cyclone! LOL!
Typical of pollies……spending the money on stuff that’s well………unimportant. Would it be politically incorrect to mention china……..they like having boys……..perhaps if they ate more at breakfast – for example – scottish oats! or drank beer? And what happens when you conceive a gay child……..what’s the food thingo for that? Could be that purple yarn! LOL!
Where do they come up with this hairbrain stuff? Thank God I am past that stage…lol
McCann’s oats…love ’em!!
Really like the new blog, too!
my mind of course was where it usually is – the gutter. oh i am so going to the bad place….
Susie: I was waiting for someone to ask about gay children! Why… variegated yarn of course… or maybe freeform knitting? 🙂
Barb: McCann’s are the best. JJ made the intro to me. Thanks for the compliment.
Joan: sounds like some of us will be right down there with you…
Of course it has to be the variegated yarn………what else……..or overdosing on Oats! Or discovering you are pregnant when your youngest is only 4 months old……and you are wondering HOW? or WHY? It’s interesting the connection between freeform and coming out! It all happened at the same time! LOL! I came out with freeform and she came out! Now what is the connection there?
Susie: you’re wondering HOW you were pregnant? I’m sorry but I find that very difficult to believe. Unless things are very different in Australia… 🙂
And re coming out and coming out… there must be some connection. I’ll study on that and get back to you. heh heh
yes………HOW………..I only did ‘it’ once! Too tired! LOL! but then that could be the reason…………………..they should do research on that!
Kristina here: well, Susie, you were after all married to a Greek! heh
Emphasis on WERE.