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Story: Body shape and dieting

Healthy tearooms

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Healthy tearooms

This 1913 advertisement for tearooms in Auckland refers to the fruitarian diet – an eating fad of the time. Exhorting patrons to 'study your health!!!', the restaurant advertises fruit luncheons and suppers, though the benefits of fruit salad and strawberries may have been offset by the cream and ice cream that was also offered. The muscular man in classical garb who holds the menu bears a resemblance to Eugen Sandow, then the poster boy for health and fitness.

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Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: Eph-A-CINEMA-1913-01-10

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Caroline Daley, Body shape and dieting – Changing attitudes to diet, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/ephemera/41397/healthy-tearooms (accessed 3 June 2026).

Story by Caroline Daley, published 22 April 2013.