Each time a person opens his or her mouth to eat, he or she makes a nutritional decision. These
selections make a definitive difference in how an individual looks, feels, and performs at work or
play. When a good assortment of food like fresh fruits, leafy vegetables, whole grains and lean
proteins is selected and eaten, the consequences are likely to be desirable levels for health and
energy to allow one to be as active as needed. Conversely, when choices consist of processed
foods like packaged cookies, crackers, and sodas, items filled with sugars, hydrogenated fats,
chemicals and preservatives - all of which can be harmful in large quantities - the consequences
can be poor health or limited energy or both.
Studies of American diets, particularly the diets of the very young, reveal unsatisfactory dietary
habits as evidenced by the numbers of overweight and out-of-shape young children. Parents, who
are supposed to be masters of their children's dietary habits, often leave nutritional choices to
their children, who are not informed enough to make healthy decisions. If anyone is to blame for
the childhood obesity crisis in the United States today, it is the parents who allow their children
to eat nutritionally bankrupt foods.
5. The author most likely uses the phrase "filled with sugars, hydrogenated fats,
chemicals and preservatives - all of which can be harmful in large quantities" in
order to:
A. criticize the growing obesity crisis in the United States.
B. contrast poor choices in children in the United States with healthy cho
C. identify the leading chemicals in processed foods so people know what to avoid.
D. intensify the negative reaction to processed foods.