Logical Reasoning

PT11 · S2 · Q11 The labeling of otherwise high-calorie

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The labeling of otherwise high-calorie foods as "sugar-free," based on the replacement of all sugar by artificial sweeteners, should be prohibited by law.

Conclusion (should)

Labeling high-calorie foods as "sugar-free" should be prohibited by law.

Evidence (indicated because)

Many consumers who need to lose weight will interpret the label "sugar-free" as synonymous with "low in calories" and harm themselves by building weight-loss diets around foods labeled "sugar-free."

Manufacturers of sugar-free foods are well aware of this tendency on the part of consumers.

Evaluate

This argument proposes a Recommendation / Plan to prohibit the labeling of high-calorie foods as "sugar-free." The justification is that consumers often misinterpret "sugar-free" as "low-calorie," potentially harming their weight-loss efforts due to this misunderstanding.

To challenge this recommendation, we could look for reasons the plan might not achieve its intended goal or might have downsides not considered in the argument. Perhaps the label is crucial for other consumer needs or banning this label could lead to unintended consequences.

Goal

We need a way to defend the practice of labeling high calorie foods as sugar free.

11.

Which one of the following, if true, provides the strongest basis for challenging the conclusion in the passage?

  1. Food manufacturers would respond to

    Unclear Impact

    We want to say that this ban would be a bad idea, and this answer presents a consequence of enacting the ban. Is it a negative consequence? Hard to tell -- it doesn't sound inherently bad for manufacturers to reduce the calories in their products..

    10% picked this

  2. Correct

    Individuals who are diabetic need

    Why this is right

    This presents a strong reason against banning the "sugar-free" label, as it overlooks how essential this labeling is for other dietary needs. It offers an important consequence that banning would negatively impact people who rely on this information for health reasons, thereby challenging the conclusion. When authors conclude we "should" do something, they assume the upsides outweigh the downsides, and this is presenting a big ol' downside of banning sugar-free labels.

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

    63% picked this

  3. Consumers are sometimes slow to

    No Impact / Too Weak

    It's very unlikely this would be correct, given its puny strength. It says "there's was at least one case in which a product label change wasn't well advertised and consumers were slow to notice it". We can't argue, "We shouldn't ban these labels, because there's a chance that some consumers wouldn't even notice that we removed the label." That's not a compelling downside.

    5% picked this

  4. Consumers who have chosen a

    No Impact

    This doesn't have anything to do with upsides or downsides of having this sugar-free label. This fact about dieters applies the same to either scenario.

    3% picked this

  5. Exactly what appears on a

    Irrelevant Comparison

    Discussing the importance of the label's layout or prominence relative to other information doesn't directly challenge the necessity or impact of having the "sugar-free" label in itself. This point is tangential to the prohibition debate. We're trying to decide whether or not "sugar-free" should be one of the pieces of information on the product. We can worry about graphic design layout later.

    19% picked this

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