Argument162 永不言弃第二十四次作业 by stgzhao

stgzhaoUID: 2583165

TOPIC: ARGUMENT162 - A recent study shows that people living on the continent of North America suffer 9 times more chronic fatigue and 31 times more chronic depression than do people living on the continent of Asia. Interestingly, Asians, on average, eat 20 grams of soy per day, whereas North Americans eat virtually none. It turns out that soy contains phytochemicals called isoflavones, which have been found to possess disease-preventing properties. Thus, North Americans should consider eating soy on a regular basis as a way of preventing fatigue and depression.
WORDS: 411          TIME: 00:24:12          DATE: 2009-3-3 11:30:13

This argument concludes that people in North America suffer more chronic fatigue and chronic depression than do people living in Asia duo to the fact that people in North America seldom eat soy, which turns out to contain a kind of chemical that possess disease-preventing properties. Close examination of this supporting evidence, however, reveals the author's claim that North Americans should eat soy on a regular basis as a way of preventing fatigue and depression is little credible. The argument suffers from several logical flaws.
To begin with, the argument fails to establish a causal relationship between the fact that people living on the continent of North America suffer 9 times more chronic fatigue and 31 times more chronic depression than do people living on the continent of Asia and the fact that Asians eat 20 grams of soy per day while North Americans eat virtually none. The argument fails to take other alternative explanations into consideration. Such alternatives may include the possible fact that North Americans are far busier than Asians due to its well development. Besides, perhaps Asians are a group of people who are cogenitally less possible to feel fatigue and depression than North Americans. If these are the cases, however, the author's conclusion based on this false correlation has been greatly undermined.
Moreover, it is a commonsense that Asians like to eat foods that have been well cooked while North Americans prefer to have something uncooked like salad. If so, the research result that soy contains phytochemicals that have been found to have disease-preventing properties can hardly support the argument's conclusion due to the possibility that this kind of chemicals can be damaged through the process of heating. Even if soy does do good to disease-prevention, it cannot serve as strong support to the claim that North Americans should eat soy in order to prevent fatigue and depression - both are not disease! Depression is kind of emotion state that should be healed through psychological treatment while fatigue may due to over-tired, which cannot be cured simply by have a nice sleep.
In sum, the conclusion that North Americans should eat soy on a regular basis as a way of preventing fatigue and depression is not well-reasoned. To bolster the author's claim the argument must provides causal relationship between eating soy and fatigue and depression. I will also need to know whether chemicals that contribute to prevent diseases could survive through heating to better evaluate this argument.