Diet cannot determine baby's gender: doctors
By Cai Wenjun | 2012-9-17 | ONLINE EDITION
Shanghai doctors say today that they are getting more inquiries about know how to use acidic or alkaline diet to influence the gender of their babies. Some people even ask doctors to inject them with certain compounds to achieve their goals.
Doctors say that there is no solid scientific evidence that diet can influence the gender of a baby and warn that injecting chemical compounds can harm both the pregnant women and her baby.
An official at Shanghai No. 411 Hospital says a migrant woman came yesterday with her daughter-in-law to learn if daily intake of sodium bicarbonate, an alkaline compound, can increase the chance of having a boy.
A doctor refused her request but the woman said she still wanted to give it a try.
Many Chinese believe that a couple's PH, especially the wife's PH, is decisive for the gender of their baby. If the mother is tested more alkaline in PH, her baby is more likely to be a boy.
Doctors say people's PH readings are stable and don't change with diet because the body can maintain the PH balance through its own system.
"Eating acidic or alkaline food for too long can result in malnutrition and even infertility," warns Dr Dai Liangtu at No. 411 hospital.
