slice of pizza hut hot dog pizza Mallory Schlossberg/Business Insider

Never does a greasy, cheesy slice of pizza taste better than after a few beers — am I right? 

After a long, boozy brunch one Sunday, I wondered: Why does food taste so much better when you're drunk? 

I was sure some psychologist or sociologist somewhere had studied this hard-hitting question before, so I scoured the scientific literature. 

It turns out the relationship between alcohol consumption, taste, and craving is pretty complicated. And it can be tough to tease out why any connections emerge in the lab or in studies in the "natural environment" (bars). 

I'm sure many of you have experienced firsthand a late night food binge after drinking. Just in case you haven't, scientists have confirmed that this phenomenon occurs. 

Numerous studieshave found that people tend to eat more food when they drink alcohol vs. when they drink nonalcoholic beverages. 

But when researchers have had study participants rate how good food tastes after drinking alcohol, the booze didn't seem to make a difference

A review of studies that have covered alcohol and food intake concluded that alcohol can increase appetite in the short-term especially, and that the mechanism underlying why is incredibly complex. Alcohol can decrease hormones and signaling proteins known to suppress hunger, the authors wrote, while it can increase those that are tasked with increasing appetite and food intake. 

oktoberfest woman beer REUTERS/Michael Dalder

One mechanism of particular interest is alcohol's effect on the opioid system, known for regulating pain, reward, and addiction. The authors of the review said that alcohol enhances endogenous opioids, which are thought to regulate the reward for eating more palatable food. 

So it may be that alcohol doesn't necessarily taste better when we're drunk, but that it makes us feel better to eat it. It’s also possible that food tastes so good after a night of boozing because all that drinking has made you ravenous.

There are, of course, caveats. Many of these kinds of studies have small sample sizes — often fewer than 50 people participate — and can be difficult to replicate. And a lot of the conclusions in this area are mere hypotheses, since we don't really know what's going on in the brain or why. 

But now you have a science story to tell the next time you're heading home from the bar, hungry. Cheers to that.