LSAT 118 | Section 3 | Logical Reasoning: Q9

LR Question 9 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: High blood cholesterol levels are bad for the heart…

QUESTION TYPE: Strengthen

CONCLUSION: Shellfish are not necessarily bad for the heart.

REASONING: Shellfish do contain cholesterol but they don’t contain much saturated fat. Saturated fat affects blood cholesterol much more than dietary cholesterol does. High cholesterol levels are bad for the heart.

ANALYSIS: Meat, eggs and poultry were just mentioned as foods that have cholesterol. They aren’t relevant to whether or not shellfish are bad for the heart.

Shellfishs’ main flaw is that they have cholesterol. We can strengthen the argument by showing this isn’t a problem.

The right answer shows that shellfish actually lower blood cholesterol.

___________

1. This doesn’t matter. The stimulus only listed meat and eggs as examples of foods that have cholesterol. It didn’t say that those foods were necessarily bad for the heart.
2. This doesn’t apply to shellfish. They are low in saturated fat.
3. Shellfish could still be bad for the heart. This answer choice just means that shellfish would be less bad than meat and eggs.
4. CORRECT. This shows that shellfish directly help lower blood cholesterol. That helps the heart, according to the stimulus. 
5. Meat and poultry were just example. We don’t know if they are good or bad for the heart.