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Study Shows Bananas Make Baby Boys

cnn.com — "We were able to confirm the old wives' tale that eating bananas and so having a high potassium intake was associated with having a boy, as was a high sodium intake," research leader Fiona Mathews, a specialist in mammalian biology at Exeter University.

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  • MikeonTV, on 04/24/2008, -0/+18What would Freud think about that?
    • debuggercll, on 04/24/2008, -3/+8Nothing. He's dead.
    • RubineBoy, on 04/24/2008, -1/+13He would go bananas ...
    • Ledfndr, on 04/24/2008, -4/+2He meant the oral and phallic associations. I got a C in psych and I know that.
  • eyepatch100, on 04/24/2008, -3/+36This just in, China and Japan have just purchased all of the world's bananas.
    • vinnyvenus, on 04/24/2008, -0/+8why Japan?
    • idavidtang, on 04/24/2008, -1/+0and trashed it because they don't need any more boys running around in their country.
    • ae92, on 04/24/2008, -1/+12China maybe... but in Japan stats show they actually show a slight preference toward girls these days, which is supposedly because they see female children as more likely to take care of ageing parents. Actually, they're not having many babies of either gender... their birth rate is the lowest among developed nations.

      If you look up the stats for the US, though, there's actually a 10% margin of preference toward boys, so maybe it'll be the Americans who will be buying up all the bananas... or would if they could afford them with the dropping dollar. :)
    • Kerath, on 04/24/2008, -0/+22More like China and India.
      • nyx210, on 04/24/2008, -0/+1They'd better change preferences soon, lest they want nature to kick in...
    • passedoutghost, on 04/24/2008, -1/+3Actually the Chinese don't want anymore male children. Their mindset has royally ***** them over over several hundred years. There are more males in China now than females. So I guess they'll have to adapt.
      • Ledfndr, on 04/24/2008, -0/+1Nature will find a way, it always does. Cue Jeff Goldblum.
    • jimjoke, on 04/24/2008, -0/+1This just in: China and Japan have also just become the largest exporters of clams.
  • Jovensdesciple, on 04/24/2008, -8/+2These scientists were confused. Boys have bananas, they're not made by bananas. That's why we can't let feminists in brown shorts with clipped hair be scientists.
  • omercyme33, on 04/24/2008, -1/+25Eating Bananas = baby boy
    Eating tacos = baby girl?
    • gllopc, on 04/24/2008, -2/+6Yes, but only fish tacos.
    • Rekbert, on 04/24/2008, -3/+2What about clams for girls? The only thing I can see a taco giving you is the runs.
      • Trollhammaren, on 04/24/2008, -0/+1The adage is that eating shelled sea creatures increases the risk of deformity/retardation or miscarriage.
      • norcalscan, on 04/24/2008, -0/+1If eating a taco only gives you the runs, you're approaching it from all the wrong angles.
    • j0keR, on 04/24/2008, -0/+1Warning: don't eat the Choco Taco.
    • Ramez05, on 04/24/2008, -0/+0then eating banana tacos would give you a hermaphrodite?
    • WikiEasy, on 04/24/2008, -0/+1Soft tacos
  • razorsedge555, on 04/24/2008, -1/+1What will eating a lot of sausages and hot dogs get you then?
  • ZippidyDoo, on 04/24/2008, -1/+2Better let the Chinese know.
  • fearlessfx, on 04/24/2008, -3/+7This ***** is bananas. B-A-N-A-N-A-S. Bananas. ♫
    • PrismoFillusion, on 04/24/2008, -0/+6I hate that song with a passion.
    • passedoutghost, on 04/24/2008, -2/+3 I do like some of her songs, but that particular one gives me the *****! [See what I did there? Cause a banana is a laxative! ...............*crickets chirp*............]
      • Ledfndr, on 04/24/2008, -0/+2I see what you did there, but I still hear crickets.
    • Berkana, on 04/24/2008, -1/+2Translate that into Chinese, and it says "this excrement is a banana".
      • KaiUno, on 04/24/2008, -0/+5It means just that in any language. Even English.
      • o0joshua0o, on 04/24/2008, -0/+1You're translating it literally when you should be translating it figuratively. In colloquial English, the word s-h-i-t can have the meaning "stuff", and the word "bananas" can mean "crazy". So it should translate to "This stuff is crazy".
  • bloggerster, on 04/24/2008, -2/+2Time to invest in banana related stock
  • elpohl, on 04/24/2008, -1/+2Papayas gets a girl? The more bananas the bigger the manlihood? What about cucumbers? Argh this investigation rises many questions to the table!
  • novadaemon, on 04/24/2008, -1/+1Salty bananas help produce baby boys. More at 11.
  • nahsrocketeer75, on 04/24/2008, -1/+2And those little fruity drinks with the umbrellas? They make boys babies.
  • yergi, on 04/24/2008, -2/+10Someone who has taken middle school biology should remind these "scientists" that it's the male sperm that determines the sex of a human, not what you eat.
    If anything, they should be looking at what dad is eating.
    • adrenaline33, on 04/24/2008, -0/+4Yeah, but perhaps the bananas determine what gender the egg will pick out of the millions of sperm.
    • Arngautr, on 04/24/2008, -0/+4Yes; but whether they develop or not is impacted by conditions in the female.
      • yergi, on 04/24/2008, -3/+1Are you trying to suggest that someone who is genetically male or female will develop as the opposite sex by eating bananas?
        • TheCatsPants, on 04/24/2008, -1/+3The viability of the pregancy might be influenced, not suddenly change from one sex to the other. You do realise that most fertilised eggs just get expelled during the next period because they fail to implant in the uterus lining?
        • ApeInago, on 04/24/2008, -1/+1male/female doesn't estaablish it's traits untill well after it is implanted in the utero wall. that part of the dna isn't even decoded by that point.
    • s0nicfreak, on 04/24/2008, -0/+2Very likely if the mom is eating something, the dad is eating the same thing... hmmmmmmmm
  • NecroDigg, on 04/24/2008, -2/+1The title lead me to believe that bananas can have sex with each other and have babies.
    Buried as inaccurate. *sniffle*
  • farhanj, on 04/24/2008, -0/+0Make it passable for boys to do more
  • Berkana, on 04/24/2008, -2/+7What ever happened to the X and Y chromosomes on the sperm cells? I thought it was already known that the gender of the child depends on the father, not the mother.
    • TheCatsPants, on 04/24/2008, -1/+3That's not the claim. It's about whether or not the fertilised egg goes to term or not, not about the XY/XX of the egg.
  • DeusNova, on 04/24/2008, -0/+4I thought this was something from The Onion at first but then I saw it was from CNN. =(
  • Joe11Blue, on 04/24/2008, -0/+0What is up with all of the how to have a baby boy posts lately? It's a bit ridiculous.
  • iamdon, on 04/24/2008, -0/+1good the research wasnt done with banana shakes..or we would have 'mix' results..
  • flashback99, on 04/24/2008, -0/+13"Of women eating cereals daily, 59 percent had boys, compared with only 43 percent who bore boys in the group eating less than a bowlful per week."

    I refuse to believe that eating cereal / bananas can be such a big deal for something that has happened since the world began.

    DO we find a large proportion of boys in Banana producing countries? What were the ratios of male to female before bananas were introduced into the diet?

    Come on Folks, does this REALLY sound like science to you? :P
    • lolinyerface, on 04/24/2008, -0/+2Talk to a mother who really wants a boy or girl. You wouldn't believe the crazy creepy things you can 'try' to do to get one or the other.
    • Ignignokt01, on 04/24/2008, -0/+1The sample size for this survey was only 750 or something thats not big enough imo.
  • moracity, on 04/24/2008, -0/+3How does this same story keep making the frontpage with different headlines. It's BS. Bury it.
  • Salviati, on 04/24/2008, -2/+2What a load of crap. I don't want to ruin any surprises for those of you who haven't made it to HS Biology, but the sex of the baby is determined by the sperm...period. If the sperm has an X chromosome --->Girl. If it has a Y chromosome --->Boy.
  • crapmatic, on 04/24/2008, -0/+2"The researchers said that a higher calorie intake prior to conception can increase the chances of having a son from ten to 11 boys in every 20 births ... They said it could explain why male births in richer countries are experiencing a slight reduction."

    What? People eat less calories in richer countries? Does not compute.
  • Exhibitionist, on 04/24/2008, -0/+1China's gonna be all over this like white on rice.
  • Zippo, on 04/24/2008, -0/+1Sorry, I'm going to have to call shenanigans on this one. That's right, shenanigans.
  • Adamlite, on 04/24/2008, -0/+1Buried for retarded headline. Disappointed in CNN.
  • Elliuotatar, on 04/24/2008, -0/+1Does this mean little boys aren't made from snips and snails and puppy dog's tails?
  • beansy, on 04/24/2008, -0/+1another win for Salty Bananas make'n babies
  • TsuruchiBrian, on 04/24/2008, -0/+1Correlation does not equal Causation!
    How many of these women were randomly assigned mandatory diets in this study? I am guessing 0.

    Anyone who has taken a statistics should see through this nonsense.
  • DerangedPenguin, on 04/25/2008, -0/+0My "Banana" made a baby boy!
  • drastic8, on 04/25/2008, -0/+1all this time my wife has been blaming ME. BEGONE WITH YOUR LIES!
  • Corsolette, on 05/02/2008, -0/+0I wouldn't dismiss this as nonsense - conditions in Mum's vagina and womb have a big effect on the success of X and Y sperm. Acidity favours the Xs, so potassium or sodium might have an influence too.
    And they say that X sperm are stronger than Ys if they have to swim a long way ... oops, or is that the other way around?.. , so where Dad deposits them might change the chances for a boy or girl.
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