A British study has found that eating well increases chances of conceiving boys. Researcher Fiona Mathews of the University of Exeter in Britain and colleagues asked 740 first-time mothers to provide data concerning their diets both before and after they got pregnant.

The participants were split into three groups according to the number of calories consumed per day around the time they conceived. The study found 56 percent of those in the group with the highest energy intake at conception had sons, compared with 45 percent in the group with the lowest calorie intake. Furthermore, the consumption of at least one bowl of breakfast cereal daily boosted even more chances of having a son instead of a girl.

Women with sons also had higher levels of nutrients in their diets, such as potassium, calcium and vitamins C, E and B12, the researchers found. The study was published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, Britain's de facto academy of sciences.

"This research may help to explain why in developed countries, where many young women choose low calorie diets, the proportion of boys is falling," Mathews said. The drop is of around one in 1,000 births annually, but if the trend continues it will amount to a statistically significant difference between the number of men and women. Women also live longer than men.

"I would urge women to not to start starving themselves in order to try influence the sex of their baby. It has been observed in some animal studies that even small changes in female diet can affect the lifelong health of the offspring, so it is important that the mother has appropriate nutrition at the time of conception and throughout her pregnancy," said Dr. Allan Pacey, an expert in fertility at the University of Sheffield, according to BBC News.

However, it is important to mention that there was no evidence of a correlation between the body mass index (BMI) of a mother and the sex of her child. The findings also fail to show if there’s a link between the baby’s gender and a mother smoking and drinking caffeine prior to pregnancy.

The influencing factor appears to be the amount of glucose in the mother's blood. Low glucose levels may indicate the body that food is scarce, indicates that conceiving a daughter is a better option for the survival of the species. In times when food is plentiful, conceiving a boy makes more sense because he can bring about more grandchildren, among other advantages.