People who consume a lot of honey tend to have fewer cavities than others have. Yet, honey is high in sugar, and suga...

Ravi on December 31, 2018

@jack515,

Happy to help! The stimulus tells us that people who consume a lot of
honey tend to have fewer cavities than others have. Yet, honey is high
in sugar, and sugar is one of the leading causes of tooth decay.

That's weird. Why aren't people who are eating honey (which is high in
sugar) getting as many cavities as others if honey has a lot of sugar?

We need something that helps us explain how people can simultaneously
be eating lots of sugar and also mitigating their risk for developing
cavities. Our answer choice should provide us with information that
achieves this goal.

Answer A tells us that people who eat a lot of honey aren't eating
much other sugar. O.K., but they're still eating a lot of honey. And
eating a lot of honey means they're eating a lot of sugar. And eating
a lot of sugar would mean we'd expect them to develop lots of
cavities. This does nothing for resolving the paradox. It's an
incorrect choice.

Answer B is incorrect because we don't care if the sugar is dissolved
or not. They're still eating a lot of sugar, and sugar should be
giving them lots of cavities. This doesn't help explain the paradox.

Answer C is incorrect because it's a vague statement that is
contingent upon some assumptions if it were to resolve the paradox. If
people who ate lots of honey also had the best dental hygiene of all
humans, then maybe this answer would help explain the paradox. But
that 'if' is a big hypothetical and an assumption that WE are making,
so this can't be the answer. We can get rid of this choice.

Answer D is incorrect because the paradox is describing cavities and
tooth decay, not health problems in general. This does nothing to
resolve the paradox.

Answer E says that honey contains bacteria that inhibit the growth of
the bacteria that cause tooth decay. Ah, that makes sense. So even if
they're eating lots of honey (and lots of sugar) they're also
consuming a ton of bacteria that helps prevent tooth decay. This
resolves the paradox for us, and it's the correct choice.

Does this help? Let us know if you have any more questions!