Between X and Y - Parallelism

[umaa]

If Dr. Wade was right, any apparent connection of the eating of highly processed foods and excelling at
sports is purely coincidental.
(A) If Dr. Wade was right, any apparent connection of the eating of
(B) Should Dr. Wade be right, any apparent connection of eating
(C) If Dr. Wade is right, any connection that is apparent between eating of
(D) If Dr. Wade is right, any apparent connection between eating
(E) Should Dr. Wade have been right, any connection apparent between eating

OA [spoiler]is D. But my question is, in the Idion BETWEEN X AND Y, X and Y should be parallel. Since the non underlined part says "excelling AT" (preposition) the underlined parallel element should be eating OF (prep) right?

Whats wrong with C? Why do we need to choose D?

Am I missing something? Let me know.[/spoiler]

[kamalsinghy]

Only D could be correct w.r.t conciseness,clarity and idiomatic.

Idiom: "between X and Y" -> X and Y should be grammatically and logically parallel. Here X (eating of ...) and Y (excelling at ...) are noun phrase and parallel.

Choice C is wordy, and meaning is slightly changed here.

C: any connection that is apparent between X and Y:
Sentence in question: any apparent connection X and Y.

[umaa]

I didn't check the meaning. Thanks for the explanations.

So, C is right if it says APPARENT CONNECTION. Am I right?

[scoobydooby]

i think even if C had "apparent connection" it would still be wrong. note that it ends with "eating of"

eat is a transitive verb and directly takes an object.
so "eating food" is correct.

excel is an intransitive verb and cannot take an object. it must be followed by a preposition "at" much like verb laugh

so "eating food" can be parallel to "excelling at"

[gmat_2010]

In (the) eating of food, 'eating' acts like a noun and is a gerund. Hence, the two are non-parallel.