Thank you for this brief history lesson! I had never heard of St. Augustine and his treatise.

How do you think his argument fares now that the concept of purgatory exists?

“Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail.” 🫡

the concentrations of salt and sugar aren’t just relative to each other but also relative to the water content

Thank you! I didn’t think about this.

I didn’t think about this, but it makes perfect sense. Somebody else also posted that solid food by definition would require too many carbs and amino acids so that the relation to water and electrolytes can by definition not be isotonic to the human body.

I don’t think being isotonic had any relation to how refreshing a drink is

Having the same proportions of electrolytes and water as the human body means that no electrolytes are passing through the cell barriers to establish such an equilibrium. Isotonic drinks tasting refreshing is probably just an evolutionary development to make us choose drinks that are easier on the body.

So I guess in a way, a low salt diet would be considered more “isotonic.” But solid food will inherently not be isotonic due to containing more carbs and amino acids than water.

Thank you! This is a good answer.