Doctor: Some well-known figures in the medical community have begun to

Question

Doctor: Some well-known figures in the medical community have begun to endorse large doses of vitamin supplements – especially folic acid – as part of treatment for diseases like ulcerative colitis. These doctors and television personalities claim that the vitamins can lessen the side effects of ulcerative colitis and lead to an overall improvement in the health of patients with ulcerative colitis. However, there is no evidence that the pure forms of vitamins found in supplements have any greater effect than those found in food. Patients with ulcerative colitis should instead spend their money on buying healthy foods like fruits and vegetables in order to get their vitamins.

Presumption: We need to find a statement that states vitamins supplements help in a way which is better than vitamin rich foods. Now, consider, C. Many people with ulcerative colitis cannot easily digest vitamin-rich foods due to damage to their digestive system and find it easier to get vitamins from supplements, which aligns with our presumption.

Answer: C.

Which of the following would most weaken the doctor’s argument?

A. Vitamins from supplements are less healthy because they often lack the micronutrients found in food that aid absorption

B. Vitamins do not necessarily cause harm when ingested following the instructions on the label.

C. Many people with ulcerative colitis cannot easily digest vitamin-rich foods due to damage to their digestive system and find it easier to get vitamins from supplements

D. The doctor evaluated the efficacy of different vitamins as part of a government-sponsored panel

E. Individuals with severe ulcerative colitis are often encouraged to consume fruit and vegetable juices alongside their supplements.

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Matthyrou · Answer

Hi everyone, I think that the right answer is c. As the matter of fact we're finding an argument to weaken the statement of the doctor. Arg: people should buy food full of vitamin instead of complements because nothing proves that vitamin from complements are more efficient to the disease.
Now let's get trought the answers:
a) it strenghtens the arg, wrong 
b)it says that is okay to take vitamin, does not weaken, wrong 
c) say that high level of vitamin food can be problematic, so weaken the fact that we should buy food instead of complement, right
d)information not helpfull to support or not the argument, wrong 
e) it does not strenght the arg, it does not weaked the arg, for me wrong
there is my explanation, if someone think that it is not the good justification, pls let me know, i wish a wonderfull gmat day to everybody, see ya

prantorboni · Answer

Doctor: Some well-known figures in the medical community have begun to endorse large doses of vitamin supplements – especially folic acid – as part of treatment for diseases like ulcerative colitis. These doctors and television personalities claim that the vitamins can lessen the side effects of ulcerative colitis and lead to an overall improvement in the health of patients with ulcerative colitis. However, there is no evidence that the pure forms of vitamins found in supplements have any greater effect than those found in food. Patients with ulcerative colitis should instead spend their money on buying healthy foods like fruits and vegetables in order to get their vitamins.

Presumption: We need to find a statement that states vitamins supplements help in a way which is better than vitamin rich foods. Now, consider, C. Many people with ulcerative colitis cannot easily digest vitamin-rich foods due to damage to their digestive system and find it easier to get vitamins from supplements, which aligns with our presumption.

Answer: C.

Presumption: We need to find a statement that states vitamins supplements help in a way which is better than vitamin rich foods. Now, consider,   C. Many people with ulcerative colitis cannot easily digest vitamin-rich foods due to damage to their digestive system and find it easier to get vitamins from supplements, which aligns with our presumption.

Answer: C.

Bunuel · Answer

VERITAS PREP OFFICIAL SOLUTION:

For any strengthen or weaken question, your job is to find the gap in the logic and either exploit it (in the case of a weaken question) or shore it up (in the case of a strengthen question). Here you are told that some people in the medical community encourage patients to take large doses of vitamin supplements to treat ulcerative colitis. The doctor making this argument claims that the health benefits are no better than the health benefits of getting vitamins through food, so patients with ulcerative colitis should spend their money on food instead of supplements.

The gap here is that ulcerative colitis patients need to eat the food in order to get the vitamins. What if they can’t as a side effect of their disease or can’t afford to buy the foods necessary? Anything that would prevent a patient with ulcerative colitis from getting the nutrients they need from food would exploit this fact.

Choice (A) actually strengthens the doctors argument rather than weakening it. If the supplements were missing important micrnutrients that food has, that would lend support to the idea that it’s better to just get your vitamins through food.

Choice (B) neither strengthens nor weakens the argument given. Even if vitamin supplements aren’t harmful, that doesn’t support whether they are better or worse than vitamins ingested through food.

Choice (C) is correct. If people with ulcerative colitis can’t digest vitamin-rich foods, then they can’t get the same benefit from the food as other people do. Therefore, the doctor’s argument breaks down - if vitamin rich foods and vitamin supplements have the same efficacy but a patient can take vitamins but not foods, then the supplements are more effective in that situation.

Choice (D) simply establishes the doctor as an expert on vitamin research, which does not weaken his argument.

Choice (E) simply gives additional information about ulcerative colitis treatment unrelated to the debate between eating food and taking vitamin supplements.

The correct answer is (C).

Doctor: Some well-known figures in the medical community have begun to

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