A new survey by the University of Exeter in England reveals that women's pre-pregnancy eating habits can influence the gender of their child.

Biologist Fiona Mathews and her colleagues surveyed 740 first-time mothers on their diets before conceiving and discovered that 56 percent of those on high-calorie diets had male babies, compared with 45 percent of those who had lighter meals.

But scientists say it is not only the calories that matter, but also the specific types of food women indulge in.

"Prior to pregnancy, breakfast cereal, but no other item, was strongly associated with infant sex," the researchers write in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. "Women producing male infants consumed more breakfast cereal than those with female infants."

Although sex is genetically determined by fathers, researchers say that glucose is a key factor in influencing the baby's gender.

"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," Mathews told the Guardian newspaper.

"But the old take about drinking a lot of milk to have a girl doesn't seem to hold up. In fact, more calcium meant they were again more likely to have a boy."

Researchers noted that women who skipped breakfast tended to have lower levels of glucose, so they have bigger chances of giving birth to a female child.

Of course, there are several factors that influence the baby's sex, including temperature, hormone levels or frequency of sex, but nutrition certainly plays a role as well.