Nandipa wishes to maintain her heart health, strictly follows a plant-based diet and has successfully maintained her blood level of...

GMAT Critical Reasoning : (CR) Questions

Source: Official Guide

Critical Reasoning

Evaluate

HARD

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Nandipa wishes to maintain her heart health, strictly follows a plant-based diet and has successfully maintained her blood level of LDL, ''bad'' cholesterol at well within the range considered optimal for heart health. But she is worried that her blood of HDL, ''good'' cholesterol, is lower than is often considered optimal for heart health, and has thus considered consuming foods such as chicken or fish that would increase her blood level of this beneficial substance.

Which of the following, if true, should be most significant for Nandipa in determining whether to add such foods to her diet ?

HDL can help to protect against the accumulation of plagues (fatty deposits) in the arteries

The benefit of HDL is strictly due to its effect on LDL levels

The body produces all of the LDL it needs; so it is unnecessary to consume food containing this form of cholesterol

Plant-based diets reduce the sum of both ''good'' and ''bad'' cholesterol

There are other good besides chicken or fish that can increase the level of good cholesterol

Solution

Passage Analysis:

Text from Passage	Analysis
Nandipa wishes to maintain her heart health, strictly follows a plant-based diet and has successfully maintained her blood level of LDL, ''bad'' cholesterol at well within the range considered optimal for heart health.	What it says: Nandipa follows a plant-based diet and has good LDL cholesterol levels for heart health What it does: Sets up Nandipa's current situation and dietary approach What it is: Background information about Nandipa's diet and health status Visualization: LDL levels: Currently at \(\mathrm{85\,mg/dL}\) (optimal range: under \(\mathrm{100\,mg/dL}\))
But she is worried that her blood of HDL, ''good'' cholesterol, is lower than is often considered optimal for heart health, and has thus considered consuming foods such as chicken or fish that would increase her blood level of this beneficial substance.	What it says: Despite good LDL levels, Nandipa's HDL cholesterol is low, so she's thinking about adding chicken or fish to boost it What it does: Creates a conflict between her plant-based approach and her HDL concern, introducing a potential dietary change What it is: The dilemma Nandipa faces Visualization: HDL levels: Currently at \(\mathrm{35\,mg/dL}\) (optimal range: above \(\mathrm{60\,mg/dL}\) for women). Potential solution: Adding chicken/fish could raise HDL to \(\mathrm{50-55\,mg/dL}\)

Argument Flow:

The passage presents Nandipa's situation without making an argument - it shows her success with one aspect of heart health (LDL cholesterol) through her plant-based diet, but reveals a concern with another aspect (HDL cholesterol), leading her to consider changing her diet approach.

Main Conclusion:

There is no explicit conclusion in this passage - it simply presents Nandipa's dilemma about whether to add animal products to her plant-based diet to improve her HDL cholesterol levels.

Logical Structure:

This is a scenario setup rather than a traditional argument. It establishes a tension between Nandipa's successful plant-based approach for LDL management and her need to address low HDL levels, creating the foundation for evaluating what factors should influence her dietary decision.

Prethinking:

Question type:

Evaluate - We need to find information that would help Nandipa decide whether adding chicken or fish to her plant-based diet is worth it for raising her HDL cholesterol

Precision of Claims

The key claims involve specific health outcomes: LDL cholesterol is already optimal, HDL cholesterol is below optimal range, and chicken/fish could raise HDL levels. We need to evaluate the trade-offs of this dietary change.

Strategy

For evaluate questions, we think of assumptions underlying Nandipa's decision and create scenarios that, when taken to extremes, either strongly support or strongly oppose adding animal products to her diet. We should focus on factors that would make this dietary change either clearly beneficial or clearly harmful.

Answer Choices Explained

HDL can help to protect against the accumulation of plagues (fatty deposits) in the arteries

This provides general information about HDL benefits but doesn't help Nandipa evaluate whether the benefit of raising HDL outweighs changing her successful plant-based diet. It supports HDL importance but doesn't address the key trade-off she faces.

The benefit of HDL is strictly due to its effect on LDL levels

This is the most significant information because it directly addresses whether raising HDL would provide any additional benefit given that her LDL is already optimal. If HDL only helps by affecting LDL, and her LDL is already perfect, then there's no reason to change her diet. This gets to the heart of her decision.

The body produces all of the LDL it needs; so it is unnecessary to consume food containing this form of cholesterol

This discusses LDL consumption, but Nandipa's LDL levels are already optimal on her plant-based diet. This doesn't help her evaluate the HDL-focused decision of adding chicken or fish.

Plant-based diets reduce the sum of both ''good'' and ''bad'' cholesterol

While this explains why her HDL might be low, it doesn't help her weigh whether the benefits of raising HDL justify changing her successful dietary approach. It's descriptive but not evaluative for her decision.

There are other good besides chicken or fish that can increase the level of good cholesterol

This suggests alternative ways to raise HDL but doesn't help determine whether raising HDL is actually worth pursuing given her current excellent LDL levels. It addresses the 'how' but not the fundamental 'whether.'

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