The age old adage dictates that the best way to a man's heart is through his stomach. With that in mind, women from various generations have tried every possible means to ensure that a good meal is served when attempting to impress someone from the opposite gender. As it turns out, however, women are as susceptible to food as men, according to a recent study.
Researchers from Drexel University revealed that women respond better to romantic advances after they consume a good meal. According to the researchers, the women in their study, identified as college-level in terms of age, are more susceptible to romance following a good meal. The study, titled "The way to her heart? Response to romantic cues is dependent on hunger state and dieting history: An fMRI pilot study," was published in Appetite Journal.
Initially, the researchers wanted to determine whether or not historical dieters are more prone to responding to images of food and drinks compared with the nondieters. Along the way, however, the researchers also discovered yet another interesting fact which is now making the rounds in the Internet.
"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," disclosed the study's first author Alice Ely, PhD. She added, "In this case, they were more responsive when fed. This data suggests that eating may prime or sensitize young women to rewards beyond food. It also supports a shared neurocircuitry for food and sex." Ely is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at the Eating Disorders Center for Treatment and Research, part of the UC San Diego School of Medicine.
Ely disclosed that the latest finding stemmed from their desire to determine how the mind reacts in relation to food cues. Identifying the historical dieters as women who are at risk to suffer from obesity, the researchers wanted to find out whether or not there is a difference with regard the reward responses of their brain compared with those nondieters. The study showed that the historical dieters showed more dramatic responses to the food cues when fed compared with those who never dieted or currently on a diet.
"In the fed state, historical dieters had a greater reaction in the reward regions than the other two groups to highly palatable food cues versus neutral or moderately palatable cues," shared Ely. According to the study, foods identified as highly palatable included chocolate cake. Meanwhile, neutral cues were dishes like carrots.
