Love 101: Food Unlocks Women's Hearts

If you are planning a romantic evening with your lady love, don't forget to treat her with a sumptuous meal before starting out.

A new study suggests that women can be more romantic when hunger is satiated. Additionally, the study suggested that women who dieted are more likely to respond better to romance after a hearty meal.

For the study published in the journal Appetite, researchers recruited 20 young women of normal weight. Half the women in the study had attempted to lose weight by dieting at least once in the past while the other half had not. The women participated in the study after eight-hour fasting. When shown romantic images, the participants' brain scan images showed a poor response. After a calorie-rich meal replacement drink, researchers observed the women responded better.

"Instead of being anxious and annoyed and irritable when you're hungry...once we're sated, then we can get on to better things," study author Alice Ely said according to Time.

The study found that women who were dieting responded more to romantic cues, implying a neural connection between food, romance and even sex.

"There's some evidence that people who are more impulsive or more reward-sensitive tend to eat more in certain situations, but there haven't been too many imaging studies looking at this population and looking across different kinds of stimuli," Ely said.