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Jimmy - 14 Jan 2009 20:29 GMT

I found this sentence on a well-known brand of breakfast cereal:

"People with a healthy heart tend to eat more wholegrain foods as part of a
healthy diet and lifestyle".

1) "A healthy heart"? I would have said "healthy hearts".
2) It desperately needs a comma after "foods".
3) I can see what the author is _trying_ to say. However, this literally
says that having a healthy heart predisposes you to eat wholegrain foods.

Any more?

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Mark Brader - 14 Jan 2009 21:00 GMT

> I found this sentence on a well-known brand of breakfast cereal:
>
> "People with a healthy heart tend to eat more wholegrain foods as part of a
> healthy diet and lifestyle".
>
> 1) "A healthy heart"? I would have said "healthy hearts".

Now this one really *is* an example of what I was incorrectly talking
about in the other thread. They have one heart each, so it's correct
either way.

> 2) It desperately needs a comma after "foods".

It's better as it is: then it clearly states that they not only tend to
eat that way, but that they tend to do it for that reason. (I assume
that this is the intent.)

> 3) I can see what the author is _trying_ to say. However, this literally
> says that having a healthy heart predisposes you to eat wholegrain foods.

No, "tend to" just says that there's a positive correlation: that the
two things typically occur together. Assuming the statement to be true,
either thing could be the cause of the other, or both effects could have
an unstated common cause, or it could all just be coincidence.

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Mark Brader, Toronto | Some people like my advice so much that they frame it
msb@vex.net | upon the wall instead of using it. --Gordon R. Dickson

My text in this article is in the public domain.

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Ian Jackson - 14 Jan 2009 22:41 GMT

>> I found this sentence on a well-known brand of breakfast cereal:
>>
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
>about in the other thread. They have one heart each, so it's correct
>either way.

Of course, if the people were Time Lords (like Dr Who), 'hearts' would
be perfectly correct.

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Ian

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Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2009

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