Self-study
High blood cholesterol levels are bad for the heart. ████ █████ █████ ███ ████████ █████████ ████████ ████████████ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ███ ███ ███ ██████ ██ ██ ████ ███ ██ █████████ ████ █████ ███████ █████ ███████████ ██████ ████ ████ ████ ███████ ███████████ █████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that despite being high in cholesterol, which is bad for the heart, shellfish isn’t necessarily bad for the heart. This is because shellfish is low in saturated fat, which affects blood cholesterol even more than dietary cholesterol does.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes ones of two things. First, the author may assume that there’s some level of cholesterol that isn’t unhealthy and that shellfish are below that level, hence why they aren’t bad for the heart despite containing some cholesterol. Second, the author may assume that shellfish offset the impact of dietary cholesterol through their low saturated fat level or some other nutritional factor.
9.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███████████ ███ █████████
a
Meat and eggs ███ ████ ██ █████████ ████
We need to strengthen the claim shellfish isn’t unhealthy for the heart. No matter how unhealthy meat and eggs are, they can't help us.
b
Small quantities of █████ ████ ██ █████████ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ██████
Shellfish isn’t high in saturated fat, so facts about foods that are high in saturated fat aren't relevant.
c
Shellfish has less ███████████ ███ ████ ████ █████ █████ ███ ███████ ███
If we knew about some threshold beneath which cholesterol isn't unhealthy, this might be useful. But we don't, so this comparison doesn't help the argument.
d
Foods low in █████████ ███ ███████ ███ █████ ████████████
So the low saturated fat in shellfish lowers blood cholesterol, offsetting the effect of dietary cholesterol. This affirms one of the author's possible assumptions, supporting the idea that shellfish are fine.
e
A serving of ████ ██ ███████ ██ █████████ ██████ ████ █ ███████ ██ ██████████
Like (C), this isn't helpful because the comparison still doesn't give us any reason to believe that shellfish is not unhealthy for the heart.