Question 8 - ESL Reading Skills Practice Test for the ACCUPLACER Test

The next time someone asks you if you are “on a diet,” your correct answer should be, “Yes.” Actually everyone is “on a diet,” because “diet” simply means “all the things you eat and drink.” Your diet may or may not be a healthy one, but the sum of the things you put into your body is your “diet.”

As used in the passage, the phrase “the sum of the things” means: