Children: next time parents order you to eat your broccoli so that you will have a long and healthy life, don't believe them.

If they press the point, contact the Campbell brothers of Aberdeen, who have lived to a collective age of 424 years and have almost never eaten peas (they fall off the fork), carrots (boring) or any other vegetables.

The Campbells - John, 91, Jim, 88, Colin, 85, Sid, 82, and Doug, 78 - are all fit and well despite having defied medical advice and spurned cabbage, beans and purple sprouting, let alone asparagus and mangetout. All except Colin have outlived their wives.

At a recent get-together in Aberdeen, they suggested the cause of their longevity was their reluctance to swallow the five daily portions ministers now try hard to shove down the nation's throat. "Vegetables are just too hard to eat," said John. "They're a pain. I've never liked them and I avoid them all the time. I can't think of anything worse than a plate of carrots. I think as long as you are active it doesn't matter what you eat."

The brothers' parents, Matilda and John, did not enforce veg munching and did not scold the boys when they scoffed the meat and pushed the rest to the side of the plate.

"Nobody has ever been able to force me to eat anything I didn't want to," said John. "I don't even remember our mum or dad telling us that we had to eat veg."

He admitted liking meat, fish and haggis. "But I don't even take peas with my fish. They're too hard to get on the fork."

John, Jim and Colin served with the RAF during the second world war and started a printing firm in Aberdeen when they came home.

The brothers have eight children, 16 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren between them.

John's son Jack, 58, who is no keener on vegetables than his father, said: "It's quite remarkable they've all reached the age they have. They are still very active and have all their faculties."