If you eat fruits and veggies every day, will you live longer? Well, according to Dr. Dana King, if you maintain that habit along with three other important habits, the answer may is that you'll have a 40% lower risk of death from all causes.

Dr. King at the Medical University of South Carolina has been studying people's health habits and life expectancies since the 1980s. He knows what makes us live longer - and the good news is that much of it is within our control. Dr. King's research suggests that even after we hit the 40s and 50s, we can still cut our risk of dying by 40%, and all it takes is four simple habits.

When Dr. King's group began tracking nearly 16,000 Americans between the ages of 45 and 64 in the late 1980s, they reported in the American Journal of Medicine that only 8.5 percent of the group they were studying had adopted all four of the healthy habits they were tracking. These four habits were involved healthier diet, not smoking, weight control, and moderate exercise. The 8.5 percent who adopted all four healthy habits decreased their risk of heart disease by 35 percent and risk of death by 40 percent in the four years after they started.

And that's not all. Those who later adopted all four healthy habits actually caught up with those who started earlier. So, go ahead -- it's not too late to reduce your risk of death by 40% ! Even late in life, these four habits have the same effect.

Exactly what are those healthy habits?

1. Eat fruits and vegetables every day.
2. Walk briskly for 30 minutes each day.
3. Get and keep weight down.
4. Don't smoke.

What happens if you manage three of the four habits?

Not much. Reuter's Health reports Dr. King's team of researchers found that only those who maintained all four habits reaped such amazing results. These participants enjoyed a sharp decline in heart disease risk and death from any cause. Participants who maintained just three of the four habits had no heart benefits and only a modest decrease in risk of death.