Folic acid is a nutrient present in leafy vegetables and some other

Question

﻿Folic acid is a nutrient present in leafy vegetables and some other foods. In the blood, folic acid inhibits the formation of substances found in arterial blockages that commonly cause heart attacks. Moreover, in a long-term study of 10,000 individuals, the subgroup with the highest blood levels of folic acid had fewer heart attacks than the subgroup with the lowest levels. Therefore, a decrease in dietary folic acid will increase the risk of a heart attack.

Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the argument?

A. Many of the people who had heart attacks during the study were eating a high-fat diet, which is known to contribute to the formation of arterial blockages.
B. Folic acid cannot be synthesized or stored by the body.
C. Arterial blockages usually take years to develop.
D. The group that had the fewest heart attacks also had the best exercise habits.
E. The subjects in the study were tested for folic acid levels most frequently in the first two years of the study.

gmatophobia · Accepted Answer

Conclusion : A decrease in dietary folic acid will increase the risk of a heart attack. The Story Folic acid inhibits the formation of substances found in arterial blockages that commonly cause heart attacks In a long-term study of 10,000 individuals, the subgroup with the highest blood levels of folic acid had fewer heart attacks than the subgroup with the lowest levels. Answer Choice Elimination A. Many of the people who had heart attacks during the study were eating a high-fat diet, which is known to contribute to the formation of arterial blockages. One way to interpret this statement is: The people had heart attacks because they were on high-fat diets. Folic acid had not much of a role in preventing heart attacks in individuals. Probably those individuals did not have a heart attack because they did not have high-fat diet. Thus this statement weakens the conclusion. B. Folic acid cannot be synthesized or stored by the body. A good option to consider. Let's revisit the conclusion A decrease in dietary folic acid will increase the risk of a heart attack So, the author concludes that one should have a periodic intake of folic acid. A decrease in dietary folic acid will increase the risk of a heart attack. This tells us that folic acid cannot be stored or synthesized by the body. One cannot have reserves of folic acid stored in the body ( I wish this were true for fat .. cries in silence ..

) Therefore one must maintain a steady intake of folic acid to prevent an increase in the risk of a heart attack C. Arterial blockages usually take years to develop. Not relevant to the conclusion. Eliminate this option. D. The group that had the fewest heart attacks also had the best exercise habits. Thus this statement weakens the conclusion. The statement presents an alternate reason which could have been responsible in preventing heart attack among that group. Hence, we can eliminate this option. E. The subjects in the study were tested for folic acid levels most frequently in the first two years of the study. Not relevant to the conclusion. Eliminate this option. Option B

abhilashsingh · Answer

OA: B

A decrease in dietary folic acid -> increases the risk of heart attack

Always focus on the relationship between the premise and the argument and stay within this scope.

Hence, only B provides how there's no way you can increase the blood folic level other than the diet itself.

Paras96 · Answer

B. Folic acid cannot be synthesized or stored by the body.

This statement provides support for the argument, as it implies that individuals need to obtain folic acid from their diet regularly. If folic acid cannot be stored, then a decrease in dietary folic acid would indeed lead to lower blood levels of folic acid over time. This strengthens the argument that a decrease in dietary folic acid could increase the risk of a heart attack

sachi-in · Answer

Premise:
       A.  Leafy veggies etc. etc contains folic acid
       B.  High folic Acid in Blood means low risk of Heart attack
Conclusion:
       Diet rich in folic acid means low risk of Heart Attack

Prethinking : Unstated assumption -> what causes the jump from folic acid in diets to folic acid in blood ?
                                                      does eating folic acid rich veggies ensure folic acid rich blood ?

A. Many of the people who had heart attacks during the study were eating a high-fat diet, which is known to contribute to the formation of arterial blockages. 
It says high fat diet causes low heart attack - no relation to our passage ( irrelevant )

B. Folic acid cannot be synthesized or stored by the body.  
It gives an hint that folic acid cannot come from anyother source ( produced in body / stored ) so they must come from the diets - Properly address the unstated assumption hence our answer

C. Arterial blockages usually take years to develop. 
It talks about time frame not anything about folic acid sources

D. The group that had the fewest heart attacks also had the best exercise habits. 
It gives an alternate reason for heart attack prevention instead of strengthening the unstated assumption

E. The subjects in the study were tested for folic acid levels most frequently in the first two years of the study. 
Frequency of testing is irrelevant in our passage

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

The passage talks about a certain nutrient, folic acid, that is in leafy vegetables and some other foods. That it helps stop blockages that cause heart attacks and that a study showed that people who had a lot of this nutrient did not have as many heart attacks. And thus why a decrease in DIETARY folic acid would increase the chances of having a heart attack.

What could strengthen this?

B. Folic acid cannot be synthesized or stored by the body.

Might be difficult to see why (B) is the answer but the word DIETARY may be worth looking at. Basically, if a person can mainly only get this special nutrient from certain vegetables for example - and cannot internally create or store it - it helps support why having less DIETARY FOLIC ACID would increase the chances of a heart attack. In a sense, a person need to be constantly eating these vegetables to keep your folic acid levels from falling.

KarishmaB · Answer

Premises: 
Folic acid is a nutrient present in leafy vegetables and some other foods.
It inhibits the formation of substances found in arterial blockages that cause heart attacks.
In a study, people with the highest blood levels of folic acid had fewer heart attacks than those with the lowest levels.

Conclusion:  A decrease in dietary folic acid will increase the risk of a heart attack.

Important to note here before you proceed - the conclusion says "a decrease in  dietary  folic acid will increase the risk of a heart attack." It doesn't say "a decrease in folic acid will increase the risk of a heart attack." which is what we would have expected.

What would strengthen this claim? We need to strengthen that if one does not consume folic acid in food, one's risk of heart attack increases.

A. Many of the people who had heart attacks during the study were eating a high-fat diet, which is known to contribute to the formation of arterial blockages.

This option makes us doubt the study that the author is using to support his statement. It says that the reason for heart attack in those people was different. It certainly does not strengthen the conclusion about the impact of folic acid.

B. Folic acid cannot be synthesized or stored by the body.

This is interesting. It tells us that folic acid cannot be created or stored by the body. This means that one must consume dietary folic acid. It strengthens the "dietary" part of the claim.

C. Arterial blockages usually take years to develop.

Irrelevant.

D. The group that had the fewest heart attacks also had the best exercise habits.

Again, this makes us doubt the study that the author is using to support his statement. It says that the reason for fewer heart attacks in those people was exercise, not folic acid. Hence it doesn't strengthen the conclusion.

E. The subjects in the study were tested for folic acid levels most frequently in the first two years of the study.

Frequency of testing is irrelevant.

Answer (B)

VerbalBot · Answer

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Folic acid is a nutrient present in leafy vegetables and some other

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