Many breakfast cereals are fortified with vitamin supplements. Some of

Question

Many breakfast cereals are fortified with vitamin supplements. Some of these cereals provide 100 percent of the recommended daily requirement of vitamins. Nevertheless, a well-balanced breakfast, including a variety of foods, is a better source of those vitamins than are such fortified breakfast cereals alone.

Which of the following, if true, would most strongly support the position above?

(A) In many foods, the natural combination of vitamins with other nutrients makes those vitamins more usable by the body than are vitamins added in vitamin supplements.

(B) People who regularly eat cereals fortified with vitamin supplements sometimes neglect to eat the foods in which the vitamins occur naturally.

(C) Foods often must be fortified with vitamin supplements because naturally occurring vitamins are removed during processing.

(D) Unprocessed cereals are naturally high in several of the vitamins that are usually added to fortified breakfast cereals.

(E) Cereals containing vitamin supplements are no harder to digest than similar cereals without added vitamins.

mohan514 · Answer

here we need to support the statement that cereals alone are not beneficial 
by point of elimination you can get right one out

in the options you can eliminate almost all other options as they are weakening and out of scope

ChrisLele · Answer

I have a slight issue with this question: I think it is not esoteric enough to be an actual GMAT question. I'm not saying that answer (A) is common knowledge; nonetheless it is bandied about enough on-line (nytimes.com, health sites) that many people, especially those who've done even a modicum of research on the topic, know. A real GMAT question, that covers nutrition would most likely work at a far more macro, dealing with polysaccharides and the like, that only experts know about.

Anyhow, back to the question: the argument casts doubt on the belief that fortified cereal vitamins are equivalent to those found in a well-balanced diet. (A) gives us a reason to support the argument: vitamins in a combination of foods is superior to the same amount of vitamins found in a fortified cereal.

KillDgmat · Answer

Hey,
Why C is wrong?

C. Foods often must be fortified with vitamin supplements because naturally occurring vitamins are removed during processing.
It means that vitamins supplements alone is not enough to provide the required vitamins, hence they are combined with food.

tia.

pikolo2510 · Answer

Hey  KillDgmat

My POE below

Premise  : - Many breakfast cereals are fortified with vitamin supplements. Some of these cereals provide 100 percent of the recommended daily requirement of vitamins.

Conclusion  : - Nevertheless, a well-balanced breakfast, including a variety of foods, is a better source of those vitamins than are such fortified breakfast cereals alone.

Prethinking  : - Anything that suggests "well balanced diet"(WBD) is better than Fortified cereals(FC) alone - is my answer. In other words we need a statement that says WBD > FC

Which of the following, if true, would most strongly support the position above?
(A) In many foods, the natural combination of vitamins with other nutrients makes those vitamins more usable by the body than are vitamins added in vitamin supplements.
  Correct Choice. This statement perfectly says why "WBD" is better than "FC(Supplements) "

(B) People who regularly eat cereals fortified with vitamin supplements sometimes neglect to eat the foods in which the vitamins occur naturally.
 How does it matter if people neglect to eat naturally occurring food? This is no way telling me WBD > FC

(C) Foods often must be fortified with vitamin supplements because naturally occurring vitamins are removed during processing.
 This option is talking about FC or rather describing it. But doesn't tell me if WBD > FC

(D) Unprocessed cereals are naturally high in several of the vitamins that are usually added to fortified breakfast cereals.
 So what? This option doesn't answer WBD > FC . out

(E) Cereals containing vitamin supplements are no harder to digest than similar cereals without added vitamins.
 Out of scope. The prompt or author is not bothered about the digestion of WBD and FC

snigdha3108 · Answer

It is not mentioned in the passage that while processing the naturally occurring vitamin are removed or not, C is a little tempting but option A has all the elements needed without going out of scope.

Uditakaushal1992 · Answer

Hi  Verbal  experts - how can we confirm Option A - as it mentions 'many'?
The question only talks about breakfast cereals.

GMATCoachBen · Answer

Uditakaushal1992  The question contrasts breakfast cereals with "a well-balanced breakfast, including  a variety of foods ":

"Many breakfast cereals are fortified with vitamin supplements. Some of these cereals provide 100 percent of the recommended daily requirement of vitamins. Nevertheless, a well-balanced breakfast, including  a variety of foods , is a better source of those vitamins than are such fortified breakfast cereals alone."

The wording in (A), "many foods", connects with the "variety of foods" discussed in the question.

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

Many breakfast cereals are fortified with vitamin supplements. Some of these cereals provide 100 percent of the recommended daily requirement of vitamins. Nevertheless, a well-balanced breakfast, including a variety of foods, is a better source of those vitamins than are such fortified breakfast cereals alone.

Which of the following, if true, would most strongly support the position above?

(A) In many foods, the natural combination of vitamins with other nutrients makes those vitamins more usable by the body than are vitamins added in vitamin supplements.

(B) People who regularly eat cereals fortified with vitamin supplements sometimes neglect to eat the foods in which the vitamins occur naturally.

(C) Foods often must be fortified with vitamin supplements because naturally occurring vitamins are removed during processing.

(D) Unprocessed cereals are naturally high in several of the vitamins that are usually added to fortified breakfast cereals.

(E) Cereals containing vitamin supplements are no harder to digest than similar cereals without added vitamins.

The passage says that many cereals are fortified with vitamins that sometimes have the total recommended daily vitamin requirement. But even though that is true, that it's still better to have a well-balanced breakfast (including a variety of foods) because it's a better source of those vitamins.

We're asked to look for something that strengthens this.

A is your answer. If, in many foods, vitamins are more USABLE by the body where they are NATURALLY combined with other nutrients, that would mean a well-balanced breakfast that has variety of foods would be better to get your vitamins from (compared to a breakfast cereal that has the vitamins artificially fortified in a sense).

-contact: gmatknight site | gmatclub dm

trungnx26 · Answer

The argument states that although some breakfast cereals are fortified to provide 100% of the daily vitamin requirements, a well-balanced breakfast with a variety of foods is still a better source of vitamins. This implies that the vitamins in a balanced breakfast are somehow "better" (more effective, more bioavailable, or more beneficial) than those provided solely through fortified cereals.

Option (A) directly supports this by noting that the natural combination of vitamins with other nutrients in many foods makes the vitamins more usable by the body than the vitamins added as supplements in cereals. This supports the claim that a balanced breakfast is a superior source of vitamins compared to relying solely on fortified cereals.

The other options are less directly supportive:

(B) suggests that people might neglect other foods when eating fortified cereals, but it doesn't address the bioavailability or quality of the vitamins.
(C) and (D) discuss issues related to processing and naturally occurring vitamins in unprocessed cereals, which are not central to the claim about the superiority of a balanced breakfast.
(E) is irrelevant to the argument.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Many breakfast cereals are fortified with vitamin supplements. Some of

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Many breakfast cereals are fortified with vitamin supplements. Some of

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