The discovery that sugar and salt are absorbed together in the small intestine “was potentially the most important medical advance this century. It opened the way to oral rehydration treatment for severe diarrhea—the main cause of infant death in the developing world.” Simple packets of sugar and salt in the right ratio could be added to water and save the lives of children who were losing electrolytes through severe diarrhea from diseases like cholera. In a hospital or doctor’s office, we’d just hook you up to an IV and give you intravenous rehydration therapy, but that isn’t a possibility for many around the world. Cheap, easy, oral rehydration has saved millions of children’s lives every year, such that UNICEF can put out reports like the one titled One Is Too Many: Ending Child Deaths from Pneumonia and Diarrhoea to help eradicate this problem once and for all. Oral rehydration therapy only costs pennies, too. If only manufacturers could figure out a way to sell salty sugar water for two bucks a bottle…