Many of the Most Popular Diets Today, Including the So-called “Paleo diet,” GMAT Reading Comprehension

Reading Passage Question

Many of the most popular diets today, including the so-called “Paleo diet,” are premised on the dubious assumption that increased consumption of meat and meat by-products pose minimal health risks to the human

(5) body. Proponents of such diets correctly observe that cholesterol intake does not directly correlate with the concentration of harmful low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol particles in the blood plasma. Studies show, however, that cholesterol intake exacerbates the negative

(10) effect of saturated fatty acids on LDL concentrations, thus increasing LDL levels indirectly. Furthermore, there is evidence suggesting that the oxidation of low-density

lipoproteins in human beings is itself atherogenic, and there appears to be a consistent positive association

(15) between the consumption of saturated animal fats and the oxidation of LDL particles. Although antioxidants and dietary fiber can help prevent oxidative modification of LDL, most diets fail to recommend sufficient amounts of

either supplement.

‘Many of the most popular diets today, including the so-called “Paleo diet,”’ is a GMAT reading comprehension passage with answers. Candidates need a strong knowledge of English GMAT reading comprehension.

This GMAT Reading Comprehension consists of 7 comprehension questions.

The GMAT Reading Comprehension questions are designed for the purpose of testing candidates’ abilities in understanding, analyzing, and applying information or concepts. Candidates can actively prepare with the help of GMAT Reading Comprehension Practice Questions.

Questions and Solutions

1. In the passage, the author is primarily interested in

(A) proposing a solution to a health problem.
(B) recommending a particular nutritional plan.
(C) discrediting an erroneous belief.
(D) evaluating the benefits of a dietary regimen.
(E) criticizing the shortcomings of modern diets.

2. Which one of the following most accurately states the main point of the passage?

(A) Increased consumption of meat and meat by-products may be harmful to one’s health.
(B) Cholesterol intake can exacerbate the negative effects of saturated fatty acids on LDL concentrations.
(C) Most diets are not as healthful as their proponents are led to believe.
(D) Although cholesterol intake is not directly responsible for increasing the concentration of LDL particles in the blood plasma, it can cause such an increase indirectly.
(E) The healthiest diets are those that eliminate meat and meat by-products.

3. Which one of the following most accurately describes the role played in the argument by the claim that cholesterol intake does not directly correlate with the concentration of harmful low-density lipoprotein (lines 6-8)?

(A) It is a claim on which the argument depends but for which no support is given.
(B) It is used to refute the causal explanation described by the conclusion of the argument.
(C) It summarizes a position that the argument as a whole is directed toward discrediting.
(D) It acknowledges a possible objection to the recommendation put forth in the argument.
(E) It is a proposition for which the argument seeks to advance a causal explanation.

4. Which one of the following, if true, would most strengthen the proponents’ argument that increased consumption of meat and meat by-products pose minimal health risks to the human body?

(A) Excessive consumption of salt, often found in meat by-products, is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
(B) Some animal fat contains large amounts of omega-3 fatty acids, which mitigate the ill effects of increased LDL concentrations.
(C) Of all plant-based diets, those that exclude meat and meat by-products are the most protective against atherosclerosis.
(D) Drugs that lower cholesterol levels can also prevent cardiovascular disease, but carry the risk of adverse side effects.
(E) Antioxidants and dietary fiber are not the only substances that can prevent oxidative modification of LDL.

Suggested GMAT Reading Comprehension Questions

• The General Density Dependence Model can be Applied to Explain the Founding of Specialist Firms GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Many People Believe that Wages are Lower in Developing Countries than in Developed Countries GMAT Reading Comprehension
• More Selective than Most Chemical Pesticides in that they Ordinarily Destroy only Unwanted Species GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Citing the Fact that the Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita was Higher in 1997 GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Historians have Identified Two Dominant Currents in the Russian Women's Movement of the Late Tsarist Period. GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Some Historians Contend that Conditions in the United States During the Second World War GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Comparable Worth, as a Standard Applied to Eliminate Inequities in Pay GMAT Reading Comprehension
• The United States Government has a Long-Standing Policy of Using Federal Funds to Keep Small Business Viable. GMAT Reading Comprehension
• A Recent Study has Provided Clues to Predator-Prey Dynamics in the Late Pleistocene Era. GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Even More Than Mountainside Slides of Mud or Snow, Naturally Occurring Forest Fires Promote the Survival of Aspen Trees. GMAT Reading Comprehension
• The Black Death, a Severe Epidemic that Ravaged Fourteenth Century Europe GMAT Reading Comprehension
• The System of Patent-Granting, Which Confers Temporary Monopolies for the Exploitation of New Technologies GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Ethnohistoric Documents from Sixteenth-Century Mexico Suggesting that Weaving and Cooking were the Most Common Productive Activities for Aztec Women GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Solar Ponds are Bodies of Water in Which Circulation is Incomplete and There is a Very High Salt Concentration that Increases with Depth GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Traditional Social Science Models of Class Groups in the United States are Based on Economic Status GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Conventional Wisdom has it that Large Deficits in the United States Budget Cause Interest Rates to Rise. GMAT Reading Comprehension
• A One-Child Policy was Implemented in China in 1979 GMAT Reading Comprehension
• The Pioneers of the Teaching of Science Imagined that its Introduction into Education would Remove the Conventionality, Artificiality, and Backward-Lookingness GMAT Reading Comprehension
• A Fundamental Principle of Pharmacology is that all Drugs have Multiple Actions. Actions that are Desirable in the Treatment of Disease are Considered therapeutic GMAT Reading Comprehension
• In the 1980's, Astronomer Bohdan Paczynski Proposed a Way of Determining Whether the Enormous Dark Halo Constituting the Outermost Part of the Milky Way Galaxy GMAT Reading Comprehension