India, April 30 -- The language and concepts used to describe the physical body are inherently shaped by cultural forces. It is difficult to say whether the audience of some three hundred listeners sitting before Surgeon-Major Joshua Duke of the 3rd Punjab Cavalry was aware of this when he arrived in Poona in the summer of 1886 and delivered a lecture on the Banting diet or Bantigism. However, this lecture introduced most of them to the vocabulary related to the body, weight-loss diets, and obesity.

The origins of this vocabulary trace back to William Banting, a London undertaker and funeral director to the British Royal Household. Banting was obese and suffered from immense ill health due to his weight. After several unsuccessful fasts,...