The way to a man’s heart, as the saying goes, is through his stomach. But the same is also true of women, according to new research that shows females may be more interested in romance after they’ve eaten.

The study, conducted by researchers from the University of California-San Diego and published in the journal Appetite, found that women’s brains were more responsive to romantic cues after the women were fed compared to when they had fasted for eight hours, Fox News reports.

The study included 20 young women who were asked to refrain from eating for eight hours before they went to the lab for an MRI scan. First, the women were shown romantic images, such as a couple holding hands, along with neutral images, like a bowling ball. Researchers observed similar levels of brain activation in response to all images in the women.

But then participants were given a meal replacement drink and shown the same images. Researcher Alice Ely said the women were more responsive to romantic cues on the second round of scans.
She theorized that women were no longer “hangry”— hungry and angry— and thus able to pay more attention to things other than their hunger.

“Once we’re sated, then we can get on to better things,” she said.

“It’s all very speculative, but it’s still very interesting and a sort of unexpected finding,” she added.