Beat The GMAT

Sharma_Gaurav · Thu Sep 17, 2009 5:13 am

In terms of its prevalence, obesity is the leading disease in the United States. There is no universally accepted standard for obesity, defined generally as an excess of adipose tissue, but a common rule of thumb classifies people who are more than 20 percent above their desirable weight as obese. By this measure, 30 percent of men and 40 percent of women in America are obese. Although studies show that few of these people will ever recover fully and permanently from the disease, the incidence of obesity in future generations can be reduced.
Adipose tissue is a triumph of evolution. Fat yields 9 calories per gram, while protein, like carbohydrates, yields only 4 calories per gram. Fat also contains much less water than protein does. Therefore, fat is much more efficient for storing excess energy than is protein. Primitive humans, with uncertain food sources, had a great need for excess fat, and their bodies adapted accordingly. Modern humans, with a predictable food supply and a sedentary life-style, are burdened by this vestige of evolution. Although they need some adipose tissue to provide insulation and protect internal organs from injury, modern humans need much less than their primitive ancestors did.
In an attempt to shed excess adipose tissue, many Americans turn from one fad diet to another, and a billion-dollar diet industry has grown up to aid them in their efforts. Nevertheless, the five-year cure rate for obesity is very low. In fact, by comparison, cancer is more curable. The reasons for this are psychological as well as physiological.
From a physical standpoint, losing a pound or two a week for a few weeks is not difficult because most of the loss is in the form of protein and water, and protein carries four times its weight in water. However, protein is also the only source of nitrogen in the body, and when the body loses too much nitrogen, it acts to correct the imbalance by excreting less nitrogen than it takes in. Hence beyond a certain point additional weight loss must come from adipose tissue, which, because of its compactness, takes longer to shed. The body’s tendency to return to nitrogen balance and to protect its energy reserves can be so strong that dieters may stop losing or even gain weight while still expending more calories than they ingest. As a result, they frequently suffer not only from hunger, weakness, and a decreased metabolic rate, but also from depression and inactivity, all of which lead them to abandon their diets. Probably because of numerous psychological factors as well as physiological factors such as increased lipid synthesis, they then tend to regain weight rapidly.
While vigorous attempts to reduce obesity in America should be aimed at all affected, the most successful efforts are likely to be those directed toward children. If the advertising and food industries stop trying to sell high-calorie, nutritionally deficient food to children, and if parents understand that the feeding patterns they impose on their children can determine the adolescent and adult eating habits those children will develop, the future generation may not be as fat as ours is.

3. Which of the following, if true, best helps to explain why a greater percentage of women than men in the United States are considered obese by the measure mentioned in the passage?
(A) The measure is the same for both men and women, but it is normal for women to carry a greater percentage of fat at any weight.
(B) The average man is heavier than the average woman; therefore, men generally need to gain more weight than women do before they are considered obese.
(C) There are more women in the United States than there are men.
(D) Because of the influence of the fashion and film industries, many American women consider themselves obese even though they are not.
(E) Women burn off fewer calories than men because their bodies contain a lower percentage of muscle, and muscle burns calories at a faster rate than fat.

4. According to the passage, modern humans do not need to store as much fat as primitive humans because
(A) modern humans work fewer hours than their primitive forebears did
(B) the diet of modern humans is higher in protein than was the diet of primitive humans
(C) modern humans eat more regularly than primitive humans did
(D) primitive humans had to insulate their bodies from the cold whereas modern humans do not
(E) the food consumed by modern humans has a higher nutritional value than that consumed by primitive humans

5. All of the following statements about protein are supported by the passage EXCEPT:
(A) Gram for gram, foods that are high in protein are lower in calories than foods that are high in fat.
(B) The body gets all of its nitrogen from protein.
(C) Nine grams of protein yield the same number of calories as 4 grams of fat.
(D) Protein is not converted into adipose tissue.
(E) Five grams of protein carry 20 grams of water.

7. The passage contains information that answers which of the following questions?
(A) What percent of the total population in the United States is obese?
(B) What psychological factors cause people to gain weight rapidly once they go off a diet?
(C) What function does nitrogen perform in the body?
(D) How is an individual’s desirable weight determined?
(E) If a snack bar contains 130 calories and 4 grams of fat, what percentage of the calories in the bar come from fat?