PREGNANCY MYTH: The Twin Bananas

In the Philippines, the elderly believed that eating twin bananas while you are on your first months of being pregnant will produce a Siamese twin babies. Obviously, there is no truth to this statement. The younger generations are much more educated knowing that Twin Pregnancy(Siamese twins) is more of a genetic issue but with due respect to the old beliefs and the very well known respect of the younger generations to their ancestors they find it hard to set aside this belief plus the stigma of having Siamese twins the pregnant woman would rather not eat a twin banana.

Twin Pregnancy (Fraternal Twins) occur when two eggs were fertilized by two sperms and (Identical Twins) are produced when a fertilized egg(zygote) splits to form two embryos. Siamese Twins( Conjoined Twins) is failure of the twins to separate at certain point in the gestation.  In the Borneo Post Online, a man believed that the banana tree in his backyard which produced 4 bunches of bananas is a blessing. We can say that having twin babies is also a blessing to the family.

Eggplant and the Color of your Baby

Traditional Filipino Belief: " Do not eat eggplants while pregnant because it will make your baby dark-skinned". First of all the color of your baby depends on you and your husband's genetic make-up and no amount of eggplant can change that. It is not true that when you eat burnt food will also affect the color of your baby but of course it is not good to eat burnt foods.

Eggplants(Aubergine) are rich in fiber, folic acid and potassium there was one study that states that eggplants helps lower down cholesterol and is effective in the treatment of high blood pressure. However, eggplants has also a bad side. Eggplants are rich in nicotine, a harmful substance found in cigarettes. A 9 kg of eggplant contains nicotine equivalent to 1 cigarette stick. It is actually minimal compared to passive smoking that is why eggplants are still not considered harmful during pregnancy since the amount of nicotine is negligible.