Eat vegetables, live longer, study says

Not eating your vegetables will make you die quicker.

That's the conclusion of a recent study from Sweden that found that not eating five servings of fruit and vegetables per day shortens your lifespan.

Those who reported that they never ate fruit and vegetables died a full three years before others.

The study reaffirmed that the five servings-per-day model to eating fruits and vegetables. Those who ate more than this did not live longer than those who ate exactly that amount.

Researchers looked at 71,000 Swedes from 45 to 83. They looked at the participants' diet over 13 years.

More from GlobalPost: Omega-3 fatty acid consumption linked to lowered breast cancer risk

Participants who ate at least one serving of fruit a day lived 19 months longer than those who never ate fruit. Those who ate three servings per day lived 32 months longer.

By the end of the study in December 2010, 11,500 of the participants had died.

Despite living longer, those who consumed more fruits and vegetables tended to take in more calories overall.

They found that women also tended to eat more fruits and vegetables than men.

Though the study cannot make a causal link, researchers did account for gender, smoking, exercise, alcohol consumption and body weight, the overall results did not change.

The study was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.