Logical Reasoning

PT108 · S3 · Q21 Advertisement for a lactase supplement

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Advertisement for a lactase supplement: Lactase, an enzyme produced by the body, aids in the digestion of lactose, a natural sugar found in dairy foods.

Conclusion (thus)

At least 50 million people in North America should take lactase supplements.

Evidence

In an experiment, many subjects who drank a liter of milk on an empty stomach showed signs of lactose intolerance, difficulty digesting dairy because of insufficient lactase.

Evaluate

If we're going to be the other lawyer in the room and argue, , the author is gonna say

What do you mean? Many subjects in this experiment had trouble digesting a liter of milk on an empty stomach.

What could we say in response? 1) who are these people in the experiment? How do I know that they are typical North Americans? Maybe this group skewed towards lactose intolerance?

2) who drinks a liter of milk on an empty stomach? That seems like an insane decision. If I ate three steaks before going to bed and had a night of weird sleep, would that show I have a dietary issue with steak or would it just show that I made a stupid decision to eat three steaks before going to bed?

Goal

Let's look for a way to argue that what happened in the study isn't a fair reflection of North America's tolerance for lactose, either because the people weren't typical, the "liter on an empty stomach" scenario isn't typical, or any other reason an answer could offer us (e.g. they were asked to jog a mile in the hot sun after pounding a liter of milk).

21.

Which one of the following statements, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

  1. Eating solid food when drinking

    Opposite

    If eating solid food while drinking milk decreases lactase production, that suggests lactose intolerance might be even more of a problem in normal mealtime conditions than it was in the empty-stomach study.

    8% picked this

  2. Correct

    Most people who consume dairy

    Why this is right

    This points to a big difference between the experiment and typical North American people/behavior. In the experiment, they drank a liter of milk on an empty stomach, as a way to test their tolerance of lactose. But most people who consume dairy ingest less lactose than that any one sitting. So even if most people in the study had issues with that much lactose, that doesn't mean most people in NA need lactase supplements, because most people in NA wouldn't be replicating conditions like we saw in the experiment. They consume less lactose then the problematic amount in the study, so it could very well be an unproblematic amount of lactose that their bodies have no trouble digesting.

    Skill tested: Weaken · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

    82% picked this

  3. The production of lactase by

    No Impact

    It sounds from this like younger people would be more likely to need lactase supplements than older people, but this doesn't give us any way to say the the study is not representative of North Americans when it comes to lactose tolerance.

    7% picked this

  4. Lactose intolerance can interfere with

    Opposite

    If lactose intolerance interferes with proper nutrition, that gives an additional reason why the supplements are valuable. That's support for the recommendation, not a weakener.

    1% picked this

  5. Some dairy foods, such as

    Opposite

    Like (A), this suggests that in the real world, we might be consuming lactose in a way that's even more likely to be problematic than the way they consumed lactose in the study (which was already problematic). That suggests intolerance problems might be even worse even outside the milk-drinking context, which would support the author's recommendation.

    2% picked this

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