The next time your sweet tooth sends out peanut-butter-cookie signals, reach for a spoonful of natural peanut butter instead. A diet rife with sucrose -- the various sugars in most candies and sweets -- increases colon cancer rates. So do other foods with a high glycemic index, meaning they rush into your bloodstream at warp speed (white bread, Twinkies, non-whole-grain pasta, foods that contain corn syrup, anything that gives you a sugar high).

The spike in blood sugar that these foods cause, plus a sluggish response from the transport system that's supposed to get sugar into your cells (insulin resistance), seems to act like darkness to mushrooms: It provides an environment that colon tumors like to grow in. Reduce your risk by eliminating as much sugar as possible. Not as simple as it sounds, since sugar shows up in sneaky places such as salad dressings, spaghetti sauces and condiments. (Ketchup has 4 grams per tablespoon, twice what's in a Hershey's kiss.)

Two more ways to reduce colon cancer risk: vitamin D and aspirin. Get 1,000 IU of vitamin D a day. And (with your doc's OK) take two baby aspirins daily, with a half glass of warm water before and after. That alone could cut your risk as much as 40 percent. A new study reports that men who take four times that much aspirin see colon cancer risk drop by 70 percent. Huge benefit, but not a step you want to take without talking to your doctor. That's a lot of aspirin for your stomach to handle.

What about fiber? It's been a disappointment at dropping colon cancer, but keep it in your diet -- it's good for your pipes for other reasons.

The YOU Docs -- Mike Roizen and Mehmet Oz -- are authors of the best-selling "YOU: The Owner's Manual" and "YOU: On a Diet." To submit questions and find ways to grow younger and healthier, go to www.RealAge.com, the docs' online home.

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