Hungry women are less interested in romance, finds study

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Woman’s brains were more responsive to romantic cues after the women were fed compared to when they had fasted for eight hours, according to a recent study performed by the University of California researchers. The study appeared in the journal Appetite.

To prove this, the researchers carried out study on 20 women of average height. Of them half of the group had dieted at least twice in their life, while the other half had never dieted. Then the women were asked to refrain from eating for eight hours before they went to the lab for an fMRI scan.

After eight hours, they were then showed a series of "neutral" images and romantically-themed images and were placed under brain scans. And then the women were given a 500-calorie nutrition supplement drink and were shown the same images again. The researchers found that the satiated women were "more responsive to romantic cues" than they were before they ate.

"Physical discomfort is pretty incompatible with desire. It’s all very speculative, but it’s still very interesting and a sort of unexpected finding” postdoctoral researcher Alice Ely noted.

By Lizitha