study - high fat diet vs. high carb diet sways blue

[atomic sagebrush]

REGARDLESS of the maternal body weight, the diet composition mattered...

In female mammals, it remains controversial whether maternal diet and particularly the source and availability of energy can influence sex of offspring born. Outbred female mice were fed ad libitum from 30 days to ≈45 wk of age on defined, complete diets that differed only in their relative content of fat and carbohydrate to determine whether calorie source influenced litter size and sex ratio of pups. Diet 1 (very high in saturated fat, VHF) provided 60% of calories as fat, mainly lard. Diet 2 (low in saturated fat, LF) was low in fat (10% of calories) but high in carbohydrate. Mice delivered four litters of pups, resulting in a total of 1,048 young born over 108 pregnancies. Gestation length and litter size did not differ between VHF and LF groups and did not change as mice aged. Sex ratio of pups (fraction male) born to mothers on VHF diet was unusually high (0.67) and to mothers on LF diet very low (0.39) over litters 2, 3, and 4. This skewing of sex ratio was related to diets fed and not to body mass of mothers. Age of mothers was an important variable, however. Mice that were first bred at 10 wk of age delivered similar numbers of sons and daughters, whereas virgin mice bred later than 20 wk of age produced litters that were skewed toward males or females according to diet. The data show that the source of calories provided in a nutritionally complete diet to mature female mice can influence sex of offspring born.

https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.0330808100

[LMSM]

I think that’s the study I found a while back and I told you I should add lard for fat!
It really is interesting to see how much the fat eaten pushed towards overwhelmingly one gender or the other !

[atomic sagebrush]

Yes I remember that! Supplemental lard is a bridge too far unless you use it in cooking anyway! But that is why we up fat intake overall - at least in animals, it does seemt o make a difference.

[LMSM]

Haha I do use it rarely but it is good for pie crusts etc - so not going out of my way to use, but not refraining from it either since it is another animal fat to add to the HE portfolio (along with butter, ghee etc)

[atomic sagebrush]

Perfect!!