The mayor of Indonesia's Tangerang city has reportedly claimed that babies can become gay by consuming instant noodles and milk formula.

"To create Indonesian children that are healthy smart and competitive, the most important thing is, from the beginning, to provide them adequate nutrition, especially breastfeeding," Arief R Wismansyah said during a city-run pregnancy seminar on Tuesday, reported Coconuts Jakarta.

According to Wismansyah, the reason is because parents today are so busy, that they resort to feeding their children formula and quick instants meals, which he claims has a negative impact on the child's development.

"So, it’s no wonder that recently there are more LGBT," he said.

Wismansyah’s controversial statement is not the first anti-gay rhetoric in the Southeast Asian country. Indonesia’s defence minister, earlier in the week said the LGBT movement was more dangerous than nuclear warfare, reported the Daily Mail. In January, Indonesia's minister of research and technology, urged for LGBT students to be banned from universities.

While being gay is not a crime in the Muslim-majority country, except for the province of Sharia-ruled Aceh, it is still not widely accepted.