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Eat Dairy Products To Have Twins, Says Study

by Medindia Content Team on May 20 2006 12:54 PM

Some research has shown that vegan women's levels of IGF are lower than those of other women, another suggested that the rate of twin production is higher in countries that consume more milk. The hypothesis is interesting, Paul Haggerty who studies nutrition, fertility and disease at the Rowett Research Institute in Aberdeen, UK, was quoted by Nature as saying.

But there are other reasons that vegan women might bear twins less frequently, he points out.

Milk-drinking women could tend to be fatter or better nourished - and heavier women are also more likely to bear twins.

Alternatively, there might be other nutrients that vegan women lack. Twins tend to run in families, showing that the chance of having them is partly determined by the genes.

Older women also bear more twins, so the rise in older mothers, as well as fertility treatments, is pushing up the number of twins being produced.

The notion that diet may play a role, the magazine says, is a relatively new one. Other studies have hinted that what we eat could affect twin production.

Haggerty published a study earlier this month showing that higher levels of the B vitamin folic acid increases the likelihood of a twin birth among women undergoing in vitro fertilization, perhaps because the vitamin increases the chance or two embryos surviving.

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Pinpointing the nutrients that are most important in producing twins could help stem the rise in twin births. There is nothing women can do about their genetic make-up, but ‘you can do something about diet,’ he said.

Source: PTI News


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