While conventional wisdom will tell you that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, as women our tummies seem to get no role at all in the game of love.
That’s all been turned on its head now though, with a new study proving that women’s responses to romantic gestures are more enthusiastic if she is satisfied… in a food sense.
Researchers from Drexel University worked with sets of women who had either dieted in the past or had never gone on a diet.
First author Alice Ely explained: “We found that young women both with and without a history of dieting had greater brain activation in response to romantic pictures in reward-related neural regions after having eaten than when hungry.”
This study contradicts previous research which indicated we are more sensitive to the “rewarding” sensation of romance when we are hungry.
Comparing brain activity of women on a full stomach to hungry women, researchers found that both historical dieters and non-dieters were more sensitive to romantic images after they had been fed.
The study was published in scientific journal Appetite.
