Obesity often leads to health problems, such as heart

Hey Everyone,

I got a private message request to answer this one, so I thought I'd give it a go. Looks like there was a lot of spirited debate. Hope I can help!

Obesity often leads to health problems, such as heart attacks, Type II diabetes, strokes, and cancer. A person who is considered clinically obese has a three-times-greater chance of heart trouble. Obesity is also responsible for as many as 90,000 cancer deaths per year. The earlier a person becomes obese, the greater the health problems and risk of death. By the year 2010, it is predicted that half the children in North and South America will be clinically obese compared to about one-third of children in 2000.

This is a draw a conclusion question, so all we need to do is keep track of the premises..

Premises: Obesity leads to health problems. Earlier a person becomes obese, greater problems. By 2010, half of children will be obese, compared to 1/3 now.

The above premises most logically lead to which of the following conclusions?
(A) Children will become more and more obese in the coming years.
PROBLEM: We know that more children will become obese, but not that each individual child will be more obese.

(B) Children in North and South America are more obese than children in Europe or Asia.
PROBLEM: There's no good reason to compare these kids to kids anywhere else.

(C) Obesity that begins in childhood poses a greater risk of health problems and death than does obesity that begins in
adulthood.
ANSWER: This exactly what is written in the premises. If you become obese earlier, you have more problems. Some of you probably didn't pick this because it looked to easy. That's why it's important to notice that this is a DRAW A CONCLUSION question. The obvious answer is generally correct on these.

(D) Today’s children may be the first generation in centuries to have a shorter average life span than their parents.
PROBLEM: Okay, this is the kind of thing that people are tricked into choosing on DRAW A CONCLUSION question. It seems like an obvious inference from the data given. But we know NOTHING about whether overall life span will go down. Also, this generalizes about all children, instead of North American children, which is all we got any information about.

(E) Parents should not be concerned about childhood obesity because kids have plenty of time to lose the weight.
PROBLEM: Ha! this is hilarious! It has nothing to do with the argument, but it made me laugh.

Hope that helps!

-t