New York, Aug 12 (IANS): If you want great sex tonight, take your lady for a sumptuous dinner. No, not to set her mood right but to stave off her hunger pangs first, a small yet interesting study has revealed.

According to researchers from University of California-San Diego, women with full stomachs are more likely to respond to romantic arousal than women with empty stomachs.

“What [the study] does suggest is that our brains respond to different rewards with similar circuitry, and that they interact with each other," postdoctoral researcher Alice Ely told Mic.com.

“One class of rewards (food, sex, money) potentially could make other classes of rewards more exciting or pleasant,” she was quoted as saying.

To reach this conclusion, Ely asked 20 women to fast for eight hours.

After eight hours, they were then showed a series of “neutral” images and romantically-themed images and were placed under brain scans.

Later, the women were given a 500-calorie nutrition supplement drink and were shown the same images again.

Ely and colleagues found the satiated women were “more responsive to romantic cues” than they were before they ate.

“Physical discomfort is pretty incompatible with desire,” she noted.

After not eating for a long time, we feel uncomfortable and when we overeat, we are uncomfortable. Find the middle ground,” Ely told Mic.com.

The study appeared in the journal Appetite.