Story: Death rates and life expectancy

Diet and life expectancy

Diet and life expectancy

One of the reasons given for New Zealand settlers' longer life expectancy was that they had a better diet than their British peers. A temperate climate allowed people to grow their own fresh fruit and vegetables year round in most parts of the country. Here Thomas Potter Lister and his family pose for a photograph in the well-tended vegetable garden in front of their Taranaki cottage, about 1874.

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Puke Ariki – Taranaki Museum & Library
Reference: PHO2004-185

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How to cite this page:

Ian Pool, 'Death rates and life expectancy - Pākehā epidemiological transition', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/photograph/26577/diet-and-life-expectancy (accessed 15 May 2024)

Story by Ian Pool, published 5 May 2011, reviewed & revised 14 Mar 2019