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Being “hangry” isn’t just a fun pop culture pun. Turns out, research has found there’s actual truth to the condition. Although every woman and her boyfriend probably knew this to be the case already, if hunger causes irritability, it stands to reason that having a full belly would make a person more loving, right?

Actually, according to a 2015 studythat’s exactly right. Especially as it pertains to women and romance, researchers found that women are much more responsive to romance and intimacy when they’re not ravenous. Proof that men need to stop being so whiny about sharing their fries.

Research shows that women who aren’t hungry are more loving.

The study, which was published in the journal Appetite, examined how women’s brains are more receptive to romance when they’re not hungry. This makes sense, as it’s difficult to become aroused when your stomach is growling.

“We found that young women both with and without a history of dieting had greater brain activation in response to romantic pictures in reward- neural regions after having eaten than when hungry,” said lead researcher Alice Ely, Ph.D.

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In a 2013 studywhich was published in the journal Obesity, Ely studied how women’s brains responded to images of fatty foods on an empty and full stomach, and discovered that both their hunger levels and dieting history did affect brain activation patterns. Those results inspired Ely to see if a woman’s hunger state had an influence on another highly rewarding stimulus beyond food: romance.

A history of dieting had no impact on the results, which found a link between women’s hunger and libido.

For the romance and hunger study, Ely and her research team had 20 participants, all of normal weight. Half of the young women had tried at least twice in the past to lose weight, and half had never dieted at all. All of the participants were asked to fast for at least eight hours and then come to the lab hungry.

Once at the lab, the participants were put into an fMRI and shown romantic images, such as a couple holding hands, and non-romantic neutral images, like a bowling ball. The researchers saw similar levels of activation between both groups of women.

The women were then told to drink 500 calories worth of a meal replacement drink and were put back into the brain scanners. After ingesting the meal replacement drink, the researchers found that the participants were more responsive to romantic cues.”In this case, they (the participants) 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 said.

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Sharing food has also been proven to increase loving feelings.

Another 2015 study regarding food and romance found an interesting link between eating together and emotions. Essentially, when you eat with another person in a social environment, you almost instantly feel more friendly toward them. “We found that people were friendlier towards others, perceived others as being friendlier towards them, and were in a better mood when they ate during a social interaction, which could imply that they were bonding over a meal, essentially.” That makes sense, especially since the results were specific to social mealtimes, but a 2012 study ramped this up a bit.

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Researchers from Clemson found that sharing food, specifically sharing food from another person’s plate, takes those loving feelings and amps them up to passionate levels. Professor Thomas Alley, lead researcher, noted, “The thing that really indicates romantic or sexual interest is ‘contaminated feeding’, which refers to the potential to transfer germs from one person to another.”

Maybe there’s a whole lot more to the idea that dinner is almost always part of dating. The rules are pretty simple. Make sure your date doesn’t end the night hangry, share a meal together, and if you’re smooth enough and really feeling the chemistry, try feeding each other.

As Ely sagely noted, “Instead of being anxious and annoyed and irritable when you’re hungry … once we’re sated, then we can get on to better things,” Ely said.

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Christine Schoenwald is a writer and performer. She’s had articles in The Los Angeles Times, Salon, Bustle, Medium, and Woman’s Day.