How will the right answer fit in terms of support and conclusion?

Only the right answer will call out why this support doesn’t establish this conclusion, which also means it will probably be the only that accurately describes the support and conclusion.

Highlight the main conclusion in the passage, if there is one:

alcohol consumption is, on balance, beneficial.

Peter: [SUPPORT]. [SUPPORT]. Thus, [CONCLUSION].

The author changed the subject slightly. You want to recognize that the support is about “moderate” alcohol consumption, but that word got left out of the conclusion. You can’t draw a conclusion about alcohol consumption overall from support that’s only about “moderate” alcohol consumption.

Map the wording of the answers to the wording of the passage:

(A) …people choose to consume alcohol because…

Wait, there are no “people” mentioned anywhere in the passage. The passage is only about alcohol itself. This answer doesn’t map to any of the wording the author used. What people “believe” is pretty much irrelevant to us.

(B) It draws a comparison…

Stop. No it doesn’t. There’s nothing that sounds like ‘more than’ or ‘as much as’ in the passage. The “popular belief” part doesn’t map to anything either, if you read that far.

(C) …that do not involve alcohol.

The argument is about alcohol, not the “beneficial effects”. Whether we can get those effects another way doesn’t impact the author’s conclusion one way or the other.

(D) …a conclusion about alcohol consumption in general from a premise about moderate…

Boom. I hope you see that you don’t have to think too hard about this, because all of this maps to statements in the passage. Is the “conclusion about alcohol consumption in general”? Yup, they even threw in “on balance” to help you out there. Is there “a premise about moderate alcohol consumption”? Yup. This is the only answer that accurately describes the passage. Thank you LSAT.

(E) …may have no effect on many bacteria that cause illness…

Do we care about other bacteria the passage never mentioned? I don’t think so. The author didn’t say alcohol works against all “bacteria that cause illness”, so the argument still totally works even if this info is true. That’s not a flaw.

(D) is the correct answer.