The way to a woman's heart? It's through her stomach! Feed your partner well and 'she'll be more interested in romance'

They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Well, the same can be said for women, according to a study. It found that they were much more interested in romance on a full stomach than when they hadn’t eaten. Brain scans carried out while the women viewed a variety of images showed that the women were ‘significantly more responsive to romantic stimuli after a meal than prior to it’, the researchers from Drexel University in Philadelphia, and the University of Pennsylvania said. Dr Alice Ely, who led the research, said: '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.'  For the study, the researchers asked a group of normal-weight female students to fast for eight hours before showing them a variety of neutral and romantic images while they were inside an MRI scanner. When in this hungry state, their reactions to the neutral images – such as a bowling ball, a tree, and a stapler – were the same as their reactions to romantic images of couples holding hands or embracing. The women were then given a chocolate-flavoured, 500-calorie meal-replacement shake, and the experiment was carried out again. This time the women showed a much stronger reaction to the romantic cues. The researchers suggested that, when hungry, a woman’s focus is primarily on getting some food. But, when that need has been satisfied, she can then pay attention to her other needs, such as sex. ‘Across cultures, food and romantic reward are closely intertwined,’ the psychologists wrote in the journal Appetite. ‘Courtship rituals frequently involve meals or the presentation of food, and while it is certainly a socially-influenced practice, it is seen in the animal kingdom as well. ‘This data suggests that eating may prime or sensitise young women to rewards beyond food.’ The researchers said their results are contrary to several previous studies, which showed that people typically demonstrate greater sensitivity to rewarding stimuli, such as food, money and drugs, when hungry. 'In this case, they were more responsive when fed,' Dr Ely said. 'This data suggests that eating may prime or sensitise young women to rewards beyond food.'  Research published earlier this year found that ordering a dessert on a date could also increase your chances of romance. Tasting something sweet made study participants more interested in a potential partner, the researchers from Purdue University found. Sweet foods increase levels of dopamine, a brain chemical which is involved in ‘passionate love’, the scientists said.