Dietitian: High consumption of sodium increases some people's chances of developing heart disease. To maintain cardi...

shunhe on May 29, 2020

Hi @shafieiava,

Thanks for the question! So let’s take a look at what the dietitian is saying. We’re told that too much sodium increases people’s chances of getting heart diseases, so to maintain cardiac health without lowering sodium consumption, people should eat fresh vegetables instead of canned/frozen ones. This is because potassium in plant foods helps to prevent bad effects of sodiums.

Now we’re asked for an assumption that’s required by the dietitian’s argument, and this is one we can pre-phrase pretty well. But let’s take a look at (A), which tells us that fresh fruits and vegetables contain more potassium than sodium. Does the dietitian really have to assume this? Definitely not. Let’s negate it and say that fresh fruits and vegetables contain more sodium than potassium. So? Perhaps it’s the case that in general, people need more sodium than they need potassium, and so people naturally take in more sodium than potassium anyway. And maybe it’s the case that even though fresh fruits and vegetables don’t have more potassium than sodium, they still have more potassium than frozen/canned fruits and vegetables. The answer here is going to have to compare fresh fruits and vegetables and frozen/canned fruits and vegetables in some way, and so (A) can’t be the answer.

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any other questions that you might have.