A recently issued twenty-year study on headaches suffered by the residents of Mentia investigated the possible therapeutic effect of consuming salicylates. Salicylates are members of the same chemical family as aspirin, a medicine used to treat headaches.

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A recently issued twenty-year study on headaches suffered by the residents of Mentia investigated the possible therapeutic effect of consuming salicylates. Salicylates are members of the same chemical family as aspirin, a medicine used to treat headaches. Although many foods are naturally rich in salicylates, food-processing companies also add salicylates to foods as preservatives. The twenty-year study found a correlation between the rise in the commercial use of salicylates and a steady decline in the average number of headaches reported by study participants. At the time when the study concluded, food-processing companies had just discovered that salicylates can also be used as flavor additives for foods, and, as a result, many companies plan to do so. Based on these study results, some health experts predict that residents of Mentia will suffer even fewer headaches in the future.

Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the prediction and the argument on which it is based are reasonable. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the prediction.

In the preceding statement, the author claims that Mentia residents will suffer fewer headaches in the future thanks to the increasing use of salicylates in the food making process. While it may be true that these chemicals could have a positive effect, the author presents a poorly reasoned argument, based on several questionable premises and assumptions.

Citing the twenty-year study made, the author reports that there is a connection between consuming salicylates and suffering headache, so that using more of these substances would help people be less vulnerable. It is not clear, however, t...

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Avg. Sentence Length: 15.562 21.0
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