Especially if you’re a mouse.

Okay, take this for whatever it’s worth. Researchers working with mice at the University of Missouri (Columbia) have found differences in the way the placenta responds to maternal diet depending on the gender of the unborn baby. It appears that a placenta for a female baby adapts to changes in the mother’s diet better than the placenta for a male baby, allowing more potentially harmful substances to pass through to the male. On the other hand, another researcher suggests that the male fetuses’ early exposure to harmful nutrients may help them them adapt to a high-fat diet later in life.

The bottom line may be simply that we don’t know everything yet concerning life in the womb, and whether you’re the mother of a man or a mouse, pay attention to what you’re eating while pregnant.  Not such a revolutionary idea, is it?