“Sugar is the white substance that is stored in the bone marrow, is it not? From this semen is produced. Since I have diabetes, I have come to think that [it is] because of using the semen more. When the `calcium' inside the bone is exhausted at that time our diabetes starts” (Bangladeshi man in focus group). This statement brought general agreement in the focus group. These findings are consistent with Lambert's work on the traditional South Asian “humoral” concepts of health, which centre on the ecological flow of substances and qualities between the environment, food, and the human body