It’s well documented that a night of drinking will bring on the munchies. In fact, greasy spoons in college towns nationwide have built their businesses around this phenomenon, staying open late just to serve up fried, cheesy treats to the fresh-from-the-bar crowd.

But smashed feasting is a bit of a paradox. Alcohol is, after all, a calorie-packed substance, and consuming a lot of such things usually squashes our bodies’ signals for snacking. Over the years, researchers have come up with theories to explain drunken gorging. For instance, alcohol lowers self-control, which may unleash our wild food desires. But in a new study on drunk mice, British researchers may have found the real reason.