The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals or popularly known as PETA has published a video warning mothers that eating chicken during pregnancy can give their sons small penises.
But despite the alarmist claim, there appears to be a bit of science behind it.
PETA published the video on Friday — or, for the American-based organisation, Thursday evening.
“Eating chicken can make your kid’s dick small,” large block font screamed, as the video goes on to claim that chemicals called phthalates are found in some chicken flesh. PETA said that “a recent study” showed that a child’s penis size had a direct link to the mother’s consumption of poultry during pregnancy.
“The more chicken consumed, the smaller the dick,” the video claimed.
PETA have made the chicken and penis size links before, most notably in asking for women to be banned from a chicken wing eating contest in New York last 2013.
But while the claims seem outlandish, there is a little bit of evidence behind it. PETA later linked Facebook followers to a 2008 study called “Environmental phthalate exposure in relation to reproductive outcomes and other health endpoints in humans.” While 2008 isn’t exactly “recent,” as PETA claimed, it does go on to draw links between penis size and types of phthalates called DEHP and MEHP.
“We also see a direct relationship between DEHP metabolites (most notably MEHP) and penile width, which were not seen previously. Additionally, the MEHP metabolites were significantly and inversely related to testicular descent,” the report outlined.
“These findings warrant current concerns that low dose phthalate exposures affect several markers of human male genital development.”
The animal rights group Peta has been slammed online for issuing the report.
Source: Mirror/Huffington Post