Eating carbs doesn’t just give you energy—it tells your body it’s safe to relax, turn off stress, and feel calm.
Scientific Claim
Carbohydrate ingestion acts as a neuroendocrine signal that suppresses sympathetic nervous system activity, promotes serotonin synthesis, and induces a state of physiological relaxation via transient insulin elevation.
Original Statement
“One thing that I cannot deny that carbohydrates do is they are a signal for us to relax. And they are a signal for the sympathetic nervous system to dial back. And they are a signal that we are safe and that we can produce serotonin and that we are relaxed. A little insulin spike is actually good.”
Context Details
Domain
neurology
Population
human
Subject
Carbohydrate ingestion
Action
acts as
Target
a neuroendocrine signal that suppresses sympathetic nervous system activity, promotes serotonin synthesis, and induces physiological relaxation via transient insulin elevation
Intervention Details
Evidence from Studies
Supporting (0)
Contradicting (2)
Effect of Insulin and Glucose Infusions on Sympathetic Nervous System Activity in Normal Man
This study found that when insulin goes up, your body gets more alert and stressed—not more relaxed—by increasing heart rate and stress hormones, which is the opposite of what the claim says.
Eating carbs raised insulin and made blood vessels open up, but it also made the body’s ‘stress system’ more active—not less—as the claim says. So the study says the opposite of the claim.