New research suggests that alcohol increases food intake in women, The Endocrinology Advisor reported.

Researchers led by William J. A. Eiler II of Indiana University founds that alcohol exposure sensitizes the brain's response to food aromas and increases caloric intake.

"The brain, absent contributions from the gut, can play a vital role in regulating food intake. Our study found that alcohol exposure can both increase the brain's sensitivity to external food cues, like aromas, and result in greater food consumption," Eiler said in a statement. "Many alcoholic beverages already include empty calories, and when you combine those calories with the aperitif effect, it can lead to energy imbalance and possibly weight gain."

For the study, researchers recruited 35 non-vegetarian, non-smoking women at a healthy weight. Researchers exposed the participants to intravenously administered alcohol at one study visit and then to a placebo (saline) on another study visit, prior to eating. Researchers observed and measured the participants' brain responses to food and non-food aromas using MRI scans. After imaging, participants were offered a lunch choice between pasta with Italian meat sauce and beef and noodles.

When women received intravenous alcohol, they ate more food at lunch, on average, compared to when they were given the placebo. However, there were individual differences, with one-third of participants eating less after alcohol exposure when compared to the placebo exposure. In addition to changes in consumption, the area of the brain responsible for certain metabolic processes, the hypothalamus, also responded more to food odors, compared to non-food odors, after alcohol infusion vs. saline. The researchers concluded that the hypothalamus may therefore play a role in mediating the impact of alcohol exposure on our sensitivity to food cues, contributing to the aperitif phenomenon.

"This research helps us to further understand the neural pathways involved in the relationship between food consumption and alcohol," researcher Martin Binks, associate professor of Nutrition Sciences at Texas Tech University, said in a statement. "Often, the relationship between alcohol on eating is oversimplified; this study unveils a potentially more complex process in need of further study."

More research is needed to better understand how alcohol can contribute to overeating.

The findings are detailed in the journal Obesity.