Montserrat Bernal Berlanga

A01192553
Individual Practice

What are the arguments of the article in the Official diary?

One of the great arguments presented in the official journal is that the current
consumption of sugary drinks is a major problem for the development of overweight and
obesity in Mexico. The high prevalence of overweight and obesity is a major public health
problem in Mexico. Another thing that is mentioned in the official journal is that the cost
of attending to such health problems is very high.

What are the consistencies or inconsistencies that you found in the document?

The document mentions that sugary drinks are a big problem for obesity and overweight
people in Mexico. That’s why they want to propose a tax on all sugary drinks. However,
sugary drinks are not the only problem for this type of diseases, as there are other foods
that also harm people’s diet. Putting a tax can help to reduce the consumption of those
drinks however in my opinion would not have a great impact on the overweight because
for that they should better teach people for better habits in their way of eating.

What are the bais or errors that you found in the arguments (bad arguments, fallacies,
omissions, false inferences and deceptive statistics)

One of the errors that can be found in the writing is that they mention that stopping sugar
drinks is the way to prevent obesity. However, I feel that this argument is ambiguous as it
is not the only way to prevent it. Although it is a good prevention, also exercising at least
30 minutes a day, helps people to prevent this disease. Another fallacy I could find is that
they mention all the sugar drinks as if they were the same, being that the drinks have
different amounts of sugar and can be used in different ways.

Can conclusions be derived from the arguments?

In my opinion, the conclusions given in the document are good but they are only focusing
on one of the problems and are not attacking the root problem. As mentioned above,
taxing only sugary drinks will not cause overweight to go down in Mexico. If that is the
solution they want to give you, then you would have to tax every food that harms the
human body. On the other hand, they can also base their conclusions on trying to spread
more information about healthy food and different types of diets as well as ways to
exercise and help the body to keep in good condition

Does the point of view of the document is derived from research?

I think the author is giving its point of view since it does not mention much real statistics
and speaks more about the solution that for the author is the best, in this case tax on
sugary drinks.

In which way are you ordering your own arguments to avoid being disperse?

As we have seen during the MOOC using critical thinking for making decisions. Trying to
read the document well and finding ambiguous errors or different types of comments, to
try to don’t fall into the same conclusions. After sorting the ideas and comparing them
with those of the document, think and try to reach the best conclusion to finish with the
initial problem