A recently issued twenty-year study on headaches suffered by the residents of Mentia investigated the possible therapeutic effect of consuming salicylates. Salicylates are members of the same chemical family as aspirin, a medicine used to treat headaches. Although many foods are naturally rich in salicylates, food-processing companies also add salicylates to foods as preservatives. The twenty-year study found a correlation between the rise in the commercial use of salicylates and a steady decline in the average number of headaches reported by study participants. At the time when the study concluded, food-processing companies had just discovered that salicylates can also be used as flavor additives for foods, and, as a result, many companies plan to do so. Based on these study results, some health experts predict that residents of Mentia will suffer even fewer headaches in the future.

Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the prediction and the argument on which it is based are reasonable. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the prediction.


The author of this text predicts that there will be a decrease in the number of people that suffer from headaches due to the increase in the use of salicylates. The author uses a 20 year-old study as evidence and the assumption that since more companies are putting it into foods, the more people will have these analgesic effects. Before the author’s argument is to be taken for granted, several questions need to be answered.

First, just because a chemical compound is in the same chemical class, does it really have the same physiological effect? This question is important to ask, because it may be the case that they are not. Take for instance ethanol and methanol. They are both alcohols, but ethanol is safer to consume than methanol. Ethanol can lead to toxicity if consumed in the liter scale, while methanol can be lethal then consumed in the deciliter scale. This means that the author may be incorrect in his or her prediction since just because aspirin and salicylates are in the same chemical class, it does not mean that both will have the same analgesic effect. Furthermore, the author mentioned that companies discovered salicylates after the study was concluded. Therefore it is important to ask if the companies are referring to the same salicylates mentioned in the study. If not, then the author’s argument is weaker since the study would not be backing up the salicylates that would be consumed by consumers in the near future.

In addition, are there other possible causes of decreased headaches? This is important to answer since there are a few possible explanations as to why there would be a decreased in reported headaches. For one, it could be that people have access to more affordable medications and there being more pharmacies being built. Additionally, environmental pollution could decrease as the people are exposed to fewer toxins in the enviornemnt which could have lead to headaches. These would mean that the author’s explanation of why a possible decrease in headaches, if any, cannot be attributed to companies’ salicylate based preservatives.

Lastly, a carful look at that study would make one ask a few questions. The study looked at the analgesic effect of these salicylates. The author should be ask if the doses used in the study versus the amount that could be used in the food are comperable. It is possible that in order to get the analgesic effect you need to take 100mg of the drug at minimum and in order to preserve cookies, you need only 10mg which would not have any analgesic effect. This would mean that the author needs to take a closer look at the study and the company in order to veritfy his or her prediction. Also, the study and the author may have different definitions of “commercial use”. The study may mean in the pharmacudical industry where other chemicals in food would not interfere with the salicylates’ effects, while the author would mean the opposite. In this case, the author would need to look further into the study.

In conclusion, though it seems like it is possible that if salicylates are added to foods, it would mean that Mentia would have fewer headaches, there are several questions that must be answered in order to see if the experts’ prediction has merit.