LSAT 131 | Section 2 | Logical Reasoning: Q11

LR Question 11 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Medical research has established that the Beta Diet is

QUESTION TYPE: Paradox

PARADOX: The beta diet is healthier. But people who follow it for years are less healthy than people who don’t.

ANALYSIS: This paradox has only shown a correlation between the Beta diet and poor health. It’s possible that the causation runs in this direction: “Poor health → Time to eat the Beta Diet”

That would explain the paradox. Poor health is the cause, not the effect.

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1. This makes the situation more confusing. If some people eating the Beta Diet have good habits, why are they unhealthy?
2. CORRECT. This explains it. The poor health led to the diet, rather than the other way around.
3. This makes the situation more confusing. If the Beta Diet helps these people, why does it seem to hurt its long term users?
4. This is just a fact about the Beta Diet. It’s normal for diets to have different effects on different people. This explains nothing about the Beta Diet’s health effects.
5. So? The stimulus never said the Beta Diet is the healthiest diet. It just said it’s healthier than a conventional diet.