Can Your Sandwich Help You Fight 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 colored 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% whole grain.

Of course, you can't depend on bread crusts alone to douse your risk of cancer. You also need to be sure you are avoiding cancer causers like cigarette smoke and are getting the following:

• Vitamin D3 -- 1,000 international units (IU) if you're under age 60; 1,200 IU if you're over. This vitamin may be toxic to potentially cancerous cells, or it may bolster the ability of your proofreader gene 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 micrograms of folic acid daily (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 of tomato or spaghetti sauce weekly (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 nonfried servings of these veggies a week can diminish the growth of cancer by 50%.