Eating to prevent cancer

If you're tempted to tidy up your sandwich by cutting off the bread crusts, don't. You'd be lopping off the most nutritious part. The crust of dark-brown bread contains six times more cancer-preventing compounds than the lighter-color innards. Why? High heat during baking turns the carbohydrates and protein in the outer dough into new compounds that have high cancer-fighting potential. Boost your bread's health quotient even more: Always make it 100 percent whole grain.

Of course, you can't depend on bread crusts alone to cut your risk of cancer. You also need to make sure you're getting the following:

VITAMIN D-3

1,000 IU if you're under age 60; 1,200 if you're over. This vitamin may be toxic to potentially cancerous cells or may bolster the ability of your genes to spot cancerous cells and cause them to die.

FOLATE

Deficiency in this B vitamin may leave you vulnerable to cancer. Make sure you're getting 400 mcg a day of folic acid (in supplement form; it's tough to get it all from food).

TOMATO PRODUCTS

The risk of developing some cancers decreases when you eat 10 or more tablespoons a week of tomato or spaghetti sauce (the tomato products need to be cooked for the helpful ingredients to be potent).

CRUCIFEROUS VEGETABLES

These include Brussels sprouts, cabbage, broccoli, watercress, arugula and cauliflower. Studies of people with bladder cancer and gut cancer have found that it's likely that eating seven or more non-fried servings of these veggies a week can diminish the growth of cancer by 50 percent.