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

Mehran May 31, 2017

@knoxygirl this is a Strengthen with Necessary Premise question.

The conclusion here is, "To maintain cardiac health without lowering sodium consumption, therefore, these people should eat fresh, rather than canned or frozen, fruits and vegetables . . . "

The support? "The potassium in plant foods helps to prevent sodium's malign effects."

So the Dietitian is recommending fresh rather than canned or frozen fruits and vegetables because the potassium in plant foods helps to prevent sodium's malign effects.

Let's take a look at (E): "Fresh fruits and vegetables contain more potassium than do canned or frozen ones."

This definitely strengthens the argument that one should eat fresh rather than canned or frozen fruits or vegetables.

Now let's negate to make sure it is also necessary to this argument.

The negation of (E) is:

"Fresh fruits and vegetables do not contain more potassium than do canned or frozen ones."

This would clearly destroy the argument here so (E) would be the correct answer.

This is not about the relative amount of potassium to sodium. The premise is about potassium in plant foods helping to prevent sodium's malign effects.

Hope this helps! Please let us know if you have any other questions.