It is generally agreed by scientists that the naturally occurring

Question

It is generally agreed by scientists that the naturally occurring vitamins found in plants and healthy organic dishes are more readily absorbed by the body and more effective once absorbed than the synthesized vitamins found in vitamin pills. Such pills are useless, therefore, and should be avoided as nothing but a waste of money.

The argument above would be most dramatically undermined if which of the following were true?

A. Vitamin pills can cost anywhere from a fraction of a dollar for an inexpensive generic brand to several tens of dollars per day for custom-planned supplement regimens. 
B. Nutritionists typically prescribe combined courses of healthy eating and vitamin supplements.
C. Leafy green vegetables and cold-water fish contain the highest concentrations of vitamins among food items. 
D. The volume of food required to obtain quantities of vitamins comparable to what is contained in a vitamin pill is effectively impossible to consume on a daily basis 
E. Vitamin pills are often manufactured from organic, plant-based materials.

Bunuel · Accepted Answer

VERITAS PREP OFFICIAL SOLUTION:

Correct Answer: D

This argument proceeds from the premise that vitamins contained in food are more effective than vitamins contained in pills to the conclusion that such pills should be avoided as ineffective. The assumption is that there is no other advantage to taking the pill form of the vitamin that might offset the superiority of the food form. Answer choice (D) provides such an offsetting advantage -- the idea that it is effectively impossible to eat enough food to match the amount of vitamins in a pill -- and is correct. Answer choice (A) provides some cost information, potentially linking with the idea of pills being a waste of money, but with nothing to compare to offers no useful information. Answer choice (B) is irrelevant; (C) provides interesting information but is not related to the argument. (E) could be viewed as attacking the idea that vitamins are synthetic, but misses the crucial point of nutritional effectiveness. In addition, it is wise to avoid answer choices that attack a premise and focus on those that attack an unstated assumption.

VeritasPrepRon · Answer

If we want to weaken this argument, we want to find another reason that people may want to use the vitamin pills. Any answer that gives us a logical reason to pick vitamin pills over the naturally occurring vitamins in plants can be a possible weakener.

A) Money is irrelevant here. Don't get swayed by the fact that the question called this fad a waste of money. They could have easily said these pills are only for dummies. A is out.
B) Why not use both? Because that doesn't weaken the argument in any way. Maybe all the benefit is actually coming from the healthy dishes and the pills are useless. B is out.
C) Undoubtedly true, but who cares vis-à-vis vitamin pills? C is out.
D) Here's a legitimate alternative. Vitamin pill contain so much more vitamin that even if the body only absorbs 10% it's still way more than what the organic dishes can offer. This would give a realistic alternative to the author's conclusion and thus weakens it significantly.
E) Undoubtedly true, but doesn't change the facts about vitamin pill absorption outlined in the stimulus. E is out as well.

When dealing with weaken questions, it's important to try and find an alternative to what the author is selling. If you can find another realistic situation in which the proposed conclusion would be wrong, then you have yourself a bona fide weakener.

Hope this helps!
-Ron

blueseas · Answer

i think there is fight only between option D and E

option E is wrong because even if . Vitamin pills are often manufactured from organic, plant-based materials
  
 but still as per the argument :it will be
-less readily absorbed and
-less effective after getting absorbed...
hence it doesnt weakens.

OPTION D wins.

raiprem123 · Answer

Premise : It is generally agreed by scientists that the naturally occurring vitamins found in plants and healthy organic dishes are more readily absorbed by the body and more effective once absorbed than the synthesized vitamins found in vitamin pills. Conclusion : Such pills are useless, therefore, and should be avoided as nothing but a waste of money. A : Discusses about cost of pills which is out of scope. B : Even if nutritionists prescribe, if vitamins can be taken from plants and healthy organic dishes it is not necessary to go for vitamin pills. C : Discusses about concentrations of vitamins in Leafy green vegetables and cold-water fish. Provides no argument to weaken the conclusion. Out of scope. D : As it is impossible to take large volume of food required to obtain quantity of vitamins comparable to what is contained in vitamin pills, it will necessitate to take vitamin pills. This in turn weakens the conclusion that pills are useless and shall be avoided. E : Even if pills are made from organic, plant-based materials, if vitamins can be taken directly in form of vitamins found in plants and healthy organic dishes, it would be unnecessary to take vitamin pills. Thus it does not weaken the conclusion. Pressing +1 Kudos is the best way to say THANKS! :-D

sgangs · Answer

Ron,

However, the premise states that the body is more effective in absorbing vitamins from natural food than from pills. Hence, even if pill contains more vitamin, it may happen that most are not being used by the human body. 
Please help me find out the discrepancy

blisteringbarnacles · Answer

Option D states that "The volume of food required to obtain quantities of vitamins comparable to what is contained in a vitamin pill is effectively impossible to consume on a daily basis " We have to assume this is true and then see if it weakens the argument.

The question stem states that the pills are not necessary but if we take option D as true then it undermines the OA and breaks the argument. Hence D is correct.

sgangs · Answer

From the question stem we can also deduce that we d not need vitamin inputs equivalent to the volume of vitamin inputs in pills. How much less- we do notknow, but les for sure. Keeping this in mind does the OA stand?

arkle · Answer

The explanation of why (E) is wrong is still not convincing.

Premise is simply stating that -> the naturally occurring vitamins found in plants and healthy organic dishes are more readily absorbed by the body and more effective once absorbed. Pills are bad because synthesized vitamins are found in vitamin pills and hence they are not natural.

So, it is between Natural/Organic and Synthetic. Natural (vitamins found in plants and healthy organic dishes) > Sythesized (Vitamin pills)

Option (e) Vitamin pills are often manufactured from organic, plant-based materials.

Hence Pills are natural or just repackaged organic food. Clear weakener as pills are nothing but organic food.

Look at (D)The volume of food required to obtain quantities of vitamins comparable to what is contained in a vitamin pill is effectively impossible to consume on a daily basis.

Okay, so you have to eat lots of food. How does that weaken the conlusion? The volumen is irrelevant. The question talks about Natural and synthetic food.

Where am I wrong here?

OptimusPrepJanielle · Answer

"The explanation of why (E) is wrong is still not convincing.

Premise is simply stating that -> the naturally occurring vitamins found in plants and healthy organic dishes are more readily absorbed by the body and more effective once absorbed. Pills are bad because synthesized vitamins are found in vitamin pills and hence they are not natural.

So, it is between Natural/Organic and Synthetic. Natural (vitamins found in plants and healthy organic dishes) > Sythesized (Vitamin pills)

Option (e) Vitamin pills are often manufactured from organic, plant-based materials.

Hence Pills are natural or just repackaged organic food. Clear weakener as pills are nothing but organic food.

Look at (D)The volume of food required to obtain quantities of vitamins comparable to what is contained in a vitamin pill is effectively impossible to consume on a daily basis.

Okay, so you have to eat lots of food. How does that weaken the conlusion? The volumen is irrelevant. The question talks about Natural and synthetic food.

Where am I wrong here? "

The conclusion isn't about the substance/composition of the vitamin supplements. The conclusion is centered on the effects of eating food in comparison to the effects of taking the supplement. Pills are useless because they bring little nutritional benefit in comparison to diet. However, if it's not possible to eat that great of a volume of food in order to receive any nutrients, there's no benefit to eating those foods and you're receiving the same level of nutrition as someone who isn't eating those foods. Therefore the conclusion that pills are useless is questionable, since it's better to take the pill to receive some nutritional benefit rather than nothing at all.

Rumikido3 · Answer

Structure analysis
Conc: Vitamin pills are useless and should be avoided as nothing but a waste of money.
P1: Nat V in plants and healthy organic dishes are more effective and better than the synthesized V in pills.

The argument is assuming that it is feasible to get a normal intake of Nat V from plants and dishes on a daily bases. If it were not possible, the conclusion would be shattered.

Pre-thinking
To undermine the Conclusion we need to find any evidence that suggests that:
1) It's feasible to consume a daily amount of plants and healthy dishes required to get a suggested daily intake of nat vitamins, or
2) Vitamin pills are useful and at least as effective as Nat V in plants and healthy dishes.

D is aligned with Pre-thinking! 8-)

gillyelephant · Answer

Could someone explain why the answer isn't B? If B were true, that means the vitamin does have some value and it isn't a waste.

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

gillyelephant , watch out for answers that require additional assumptions. B would require us to assume that nutritionists would never prescribe something useless. Maybe the nutritionists are wrong to prescribe vitamins!

broall · Answer

A. Vitamin pills can cost anywhere from a fraction of a dollar for an inexpensive generic brand to several tens of dollars per day for custom-planned supplement regimens.
 This choice really supports the argument. Using vitamin pills seems to cost much, so why people continue using these vitamin pills?

B. Nutritionists typically prescribe combined courses of healthy eating and vitamin supplements.
 This choice suggests that nutritionists recommend for using both heathy foods and vitamin pills. However, this choice doesnt explain that why we still need vitamin pills, because healthy foods are more effective at providing us vitamins than vitamin pills.

C. Leafy green vegetables and cold-water fish contain the highest concentrations of vitamins among food items.
 If this choice is true, then this one supports argument.

D. The volume of food required to obtain quantities of vitamins comparable to what is contained in a vitamin pill is effectively impossible to consume on a daily basis
 Correct. This choice suggests that daily food, even is effective at providing us important vitamins, cannot provide us enough quantities of vitamins that we need everyday. So we still need to use vitamin pills to fill the gap

E. Vitamin pills are often manufactured from organic, plant-based materials.
 This one neither supports nor weakens the argument.

keats · Answer

I was between B and D but could narrow down quickly to B. I resonate with the point DmitryFarber shared. Even when the nutritionist suggests to have a combination of healthy items and vitamin supplements we aren't clear if using vitamin supplement works. We just can't assume what nutritionists say as correct.

However, don't you think if an option states a point we have to consider it true? We can't go against the point stated. Please share your thoughts DmitryFarber

Thanks in advance

However, don't you think if an option states a point we have to consider it true? We can't go against the point stated. Please share your thoughts  DmitryFarber

Thanks in advance

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

Keats , we absolutely have to accept the truth of the answers. So it's true that nutritionists prescribe vitamins. However, we have no idea about  why , let alone whether that reasoning is correct. (Perhaps the nutritionists are mistaken, or perhaps they know that vitamins don't work and prescribe them anyway.) Similarly, if a choice said "Jay believes in ghosts," then we'd grant that Jay believes in ghosts. We believe that he believes in them. That doesn't mean that ghosts are real!

Mo2men · Answer

Hi Dmitry,

Why E is wrong?

When pills are manufactured from plant-based material , is it a good alternative to use it and prove that it is not waste of money?

thanks in adavnce

bluetrain · Answer

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We need focus on words "  synthesized vitamins  found in vitamin pills"

Still (E) is not a contender?

v12345 · Answer

(A) Incorrect as only talks about the cost.
(B) Incorrect as it neither supports nor weaken.
(C) Incorrect as it is irrelevant here.
(D) Correct as it weakens the argument as food on daily basis is not enough.
(E) Incorrect as it just tells from what pills are made.

Hence, OA is (D).

bnairsurya · Answer

Argh totally missed a small point. 
Premise says pills are less effective NOT ineffective.

Hence Option D) is the right answer.

Even not readily digestible, it still get digested hence pills win over food!

It is generally agreed by scientists that the naturally occurring

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