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Hey abhimahna / GMATNinja
can you explain the reason to eliminate option D?
if both good and bad cholesterol go down because of plant-based of diets, then eating food such as chicken or fish would be beneficial to counter the effect of plant-based diet on good cholesterol
Hence I marked D. can you let me know your thoughts here?
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Nandipa wishes to maintain her heart health, strictly follows a plant-based diet and has successfully maintained her blood level of LDL, ''bad'' cholesterol at well within the range considered optimal for heart health. But She is worried that her blood of HDL, ''good'' cholesterol, is lower than is often considered optimal for heart health, and has thus considered consuming foods such as chicken or fish that would increase her blood level of this beneficial substance.
Nandipa has considered
consuming foods that increase HDL blood level (such as chicken or fish) to maintain her heart health. Here's why she is considering this change:
- She wishes to maintain heart health.
- Her LDL level is in the range considered optimal for heart health.
- Her HDL level is lower than is often considered optimal for heart health.
- Foods such as chicken or fish would increase her HDL blood level. (Mmm... fish.)
- Therefore, consuming foods such as chicken or fish will help Nandipa maintain heart health.
One thing that jumps out immediately from this breakdown is that there's no connection between LDL and HDL. We know that for optimal heart health, one should meet the optimal range for each type of cholesterol. But as far as we can tell, each type impacts heart health independently. This means that if we're analyzing the impact of consuming HDL via food, we shouldn't take into account the role of LDL unless we're given new information that explicitly links the two in their effect on heart health.
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Which of the following, if true , should be most significant for Nandipa in determining whether to add such foods to her diet?
We're looking for anything that could strengthen or weaken the conclusion that consuming foods that increase HDL blood level will help Nandipa maintain her heart health. Let's begin eliminating choices:
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A. HDL can help to protect against the accumulation of plagues (fatty deposits) in the arteries
This choice elaborates on what HDL literally does in the blood stream, but we already know that HDL is "good." Because (A) doesn't have any impact on Nandipa's conclusion (consume foods that contain HDL), we can eliminate it.
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B. The benefit of HDL is stricly due to its effect on LDL levels
If true, this weakens the conclusion. Whereas the only thing we knew before is that more HDL is good for heart health, this choice tells us that the benefit of HDL is limited to its effect on LDL levels. Nandipa's LDL levels are already in the optimal range, so consuming foods with HDL will deliver no additional benefit to her heart health. Let's keep (B) around unless we see something more game-changing.
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C. The body produces all of the LDL it needs; so it is unnecessary to consume food containing this form of cholesterol
The conclusion has nothing to do with consumption of food containing LDL, and this choice doesn't provide information that links LDL to HDL. Eliminate (C).
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D. Plant-based diets reduce the sum of both ''good'' and ''bad'' cholesterol
We already know that Nandipa has a plant-based diet. This new information about what her diet does to the sum of LDL and HDL is irrelevant, because we're are analyzing whether Nandipa should modify that diet by consuming foods that contain HDL (such as chicken or fish). (D) doesn't impact the conclusion we care about, so we'll eliminate it.
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E. There are other foods besides chicken or fish that can increase the level of good cholesterol
Like answer choice (A), this choice underscores something we already know. Who cares how many foods have HDL? We want to know whether Nandipa
should make the decision to begin eating these foods; it doesn't matter whether they're chicken, fish, eggs, steak, dosas, pie, bhindi masala, carne asada burritos, vanilla pudding, lamb tagine, Bavarian pretzels, or anything else that might increase HDL levels. Because this choice doesn't provide any information to strengthen or weaken Nandipa's choice to add foods containing HDL to her diet, we can eliminate it as well.
Unrelated: that last paragraph made me hungry.
Anyway, (B) is the best answer. It's the only one that directly addresses Nandipa's decision and provides new information to help us assess that decision.