Since the 1970s, researchers have suspected that diet and nutrition are related to colorectal cancer risk. Numerous studies published since that time have confirmed the connection between what we eat and risk of this cancer. Many health experts agree that a high fiber diet is important for cancer prevention, but questions remain about how much and which types of high fiber foods may reduce colorectal cancer risk most effectively. This has led to interest in specific high fiber foods, especially whole grains.

Start the day with a bowl of whole grain cereal or oatmeal. For cold cereals, choose one that contains at least 6 grams of fiber per serving and make sure you pick one where sugar does not appear first, second or third in the ingredient list. Oatmeal is not only high fiber but studies show that it helps reduce cholesterol. But if you are like me I am not fond of the mushy breakfast food. Until a dear musician friend introduced me to steel oats. Now I can't get enough of these nutty oats and even eat them for late night snacks.

Steel cut oats are whole grain groats which have been cut into only two or three pieces. Which means the the inner portion of the oat kernel is not missing like in rolled oats. They are golden in color and resemble small rice pieces. Steel-cut oats are also known as coarse cut oats, pinhead oats, Scotch oats, or Irish oats. Because the steel cut oats are more natural with less pre-processing, they may be more nutritious than the more popular rolled oats. But to me they give off a more nutty taste and I like the small crunch over the mushy consistency of the rolled oats. The cooking time is longer on steel cut oats but really worth the wait.

When shopping for them in your grocery store, look for canisters much like coffee cans as they are kept in air tight containers.

Preparing your Steel Oats.

1 cup steel cut oats
4 cups water
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp butter
Fresh Blueberries or other fresh fruits.

Combine oats and other ingredients in medium saucepan and bring water to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to medium. Simmer for 30 minutes stirring occasionally to keep from sticking on the bottom. For the last 5 to 10 minutes of cooking time you will need to stir more frequently as it thickens. Spoon into a bowl and top with fresh fruit. Some people like to add a little milk to the bowl to give them a creamy texture. Makes 4 servings.

There's nothing like a little benign news to start the day, nothing like a voice on the other end of the phone saying, "the pathology on your biopsy came back and everything is benign. We'll see you in one year for your next appointment."

While my dermatologist was freezing the pre-cancerous actinic keratoses lesions on my nose last week, she decided to cut out a suspicious chunk of skin on my hand. It was much worse than the freezing. She gave me a shot and numbed the area and then literally dug a hole into the skin just below the pinkie finger on my right hand. For days now, I've been applying antibiotic ointment, bandaging the wound, and whining about the twinges of pain that shoot through my hand.

My hand is still sore today. But I don't have skin cancer. And that makes the pain a whole lot more tolerable.

If you are trying to ward off cancer by making a change in your smoking habits, cutting back isn't enough. Cutting out cigarettes altogether is the only way to really protect your health.

Think about this tidbit I found in the March 2007 issue of Woman's Day Magazine.

A 20-year-study of more than 50,000 people in Norway recently revealed that patients who smoked fewer cigarettes -- even those who cut back by half -- were just as likely as heavy smokers to suffer from early death due to cardiovascular disease, cancer, and other tobacco-related problems.

On February 5, the President cut about $11 billion from the National Cancer Institute budget. On March 20, one group -- the Colorectal Cancer Coalition or C3 -- will ask Congress to return some of this money.

Colorectal cancer advocates from all over the country will descend upon Washington DC on this day, in honor of National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. Their plan of action on behalf of C3's first-ever Call-On Congress includes meeting with members of Congress face to face, discussing cancer research and prevention funding, and informing these powerful people that the time to cure cancer is now.

These advocates have a lot to accomplish -- and they need your help. So they ask that while they are rallying in DC that you lend your support with a few simple phone calls.

On Tuesday, March 20, between the hours of 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM Eastern Standard Time, pick up your phone and call two Senators and one Representative. Tell them now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of the cancer cause.

C3 offers a step-by-step guide for making yourself heard. The group will help you locate your specific legislators and provides a script for what to say and how to say it.

"The more people who call on March 20th and ask for Congress to make funding the war on cancer a priority, the better for us all," says one advocate.

In the not-too-distant future, dermatologists will be able to diagnose skin cancer without ever cutting the skin.

Right now, doctors cut out all suspicious lesions in order to examine them, to determine if they are cancerous or not. But with the development of a new microscope, cells can be examined right on the body -- without cutting.

Moles matter, reported Matt Lauer on Thursday's TODAY show during an interview with a skin cancer expert. Moles are highly associated with melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. So it is critical that each mole is investigated. With this new high resolution technology -- essentially a video biopsy -- a camera will allow doctors to view cells, zero in on the area of concern, and pinpoint the exact cells that make up a mole. If the cells are similar in shape and size and have equal distribution, the mole is normal. If the individual cells are irregular and have no uniform pattern, the mole is abnormal and probably cancerous.

While cutting for biopsy purposes will one day be a thing of the past, cutting will still be necessary if a mole is characterized by cancerous cells. If it's cancer, it must come out. But the video biopsy can be used to map the border and boundaries and will allow for precise removal of the mole.

This technology is still developing -- but one day, perhaps eight to 10 years from now -- doctors will be able to more consistently detect cancer without removal of skin. For now, they must take a piece of the mole and put it under a microscope.

There are definite warning signs of skin cancer. Any mole that is asymmetrical with irregular borders and varied, dark colors should be reported to a physician. Also, any mole that changes in color, shape, or size and is bigger than a pencil eraser is cause for concern.

More pink is popping up -- this time on the shelves of Yankee Candle stores where pretty pink candles are displayed with labels of pretty pink breast cancer ribbons. Yankee Candle is proud to support the fight against breast cancer and is featuring the scent Fresh Cut Roses in 14.5 oz. jars for this special cause. A portion of all proceeds will be donated for breast cancer research and awareness. This candle -- a special and limited edition -- costs $19.99 and can be purchased in retail stores or on-line.

Yankee Candle has always been active in charitable endeavors and seeks to make a strong, positive impact on the communities in which they do business. They support the United Way and the American Heart Association -- and now they support breast cancer initiatives too.

Numbness is wearing off, and I am beginning to feel twinges of pain surrounding the area where my port was once located. I can't see what was done to me today -- because the area is carefully bandaged -- but I know from what I feel that my skin has been cut and sewn back together. I feel the skin tightening, stretching, pulsing and while it's not terribly comfortable, it's pretty minor compared to the pain of so many other cancer procedures -- like my lumpectomy, my chemotherapy, my nausea, my neutropenia, my allergic reactions to various medications.

So I am fine, following my port removal that was predicted to last a few hours but somehow took most of the day. The actual procedure took just one hour, and the twilight drug that kept me in a peaceful funk allowed me to relax while the port that was tunneled into the tissue underneath my skin was precisely taken from my body. It was an uneventful experience -- except for a few tears that dripped from my eyes during the final moments before my surgery. I think it may have been the power of the moment -- the moment signaling the end of my active cancer journey. Or it may have been the power of support offered by my sister and my three-year-old son who accompanied me today. Or it may have been the power of the response I gave a nurse who had just seen my little guy and asked me if I planned to have more children. My response -- probably not, because of cancer -- seemed a little too final, a little too sad.

It may have been the combination of everything, all adding up over the past two years, that brought tears to my eyes today. But for now, the tears are gone. And the port is gone. For now, my cancer is gone.

The topic of my hair is often the subject of conversation -- and is a constant reminder that this brown curly hair I have covering my head is nothing like the straight blond hair I was born with, grew up with, was known for. Because my little boys have white blond hair, I am consistently asked by strangers, "Where did your boys get that blond hair?" "From me," is what I want to say because it's the truth -- but that would make no sense to anyone who does not know me, anyone who does not know that my hair -- that once looked much like my boys' hair -- was lost to chemotherapy and returned shockingly different. So sometimes I just chuckle in wonder with these strangers who may not expect an answer anyway. Or I tell them the story -- if they seem to really want in on the details of the mystery. Most people are surprised that my hair grew back like it did. I am not surprised -- I was warned that it might happen -- although it is still a startling discovery each time I look in the mirror, each time I look back at photos, each time I see gray hairs emerging through my dark hair -- gray that only slightly showed up in the midst of my blond locks.

The memory of my blond hair keeps popping up. My husband told me the other day that he had a dream about me -- I was in a restaurant, at a table, by myself. He was walking toward me. And I had blond hair. The rest of the dream is insignificant. The blond hair is significant. And the other day, I pulled my brush out of my purse. It hasn't been used in more than a year -- because I don't brush my curls at all -- and at the base of the brush, wound around the bristles, were long blond strands of hair. My blond hair. My old hair. The same hair I showed my friend who visited from Ohio last week -- the hair that was once on my head, was cut off in preparation of the great fallout, and is now kept in a ziplock bag.

I like my brown hair. I like my curls. But I miss my blond hair. I am sad that I no longer match my children, that I don't look like the bride in my wedding photo, that I will attend my 20-year high school reunion in two years and will wear a photo name tag that looks nothing like me. I like the familiar -- which is why I never wanted to show my bald head, why I covered my head with blond wigs and hats to keep my appearance as close to normal as possible. And then in a strange turn of events, my hair grew back in an unfamiliar fashion -- and somehow the question, "I see where your boys get that blond hair" flip-flopped into "Where did your boys get that blond hair?" It is all still new to me. I know one day it will become familiar and normal and not such a big deal. Some day. I hope.

My little boys love candy -- and sometimes I think they eat healthy food only to earn sweets. Their constant badgering about candy has led to a recent ban on artificially-sweetened stuff in our house. If it's not in the house, they can't have it. No arguments. That's it. Fortunately, they also love fruit. So what we lack in candy we now make up for with fruit -- apples and bananas and grapes and peaches and strawberries are favorites. And just today at lunch, three-year-old Danny cleared his plate of strawberries and then proclaimed, "I love strawberries!" And I love that Danny loves strawberries -- especially in light of the news that hit papers today.

It seems that candy lovers are more likely than salt lovers to eat fruit. A study published in the journal Appetite found that people who eat candy, cakes, and other sweet snacks eat more fruit than people who prefer salty snacks like chips and nuts. Maybe that's the reason for my boys' equal affection for both candy and fruit -- and their indifference about salty treats. Apparently, the craving for something sweet is satisfied by both candy and fruit -- which is hopeful for kids whose parents might now steer them in the direction of the more healthy option. And for dieters who might incorporate more fruits into their menus in an effort to cut calories. And for anyone really who is concerned that a diet rich in candy, cookies, and cakes might contribute to illness and disease while fruits and vegetables encourage healthful living.

An apple a day.

I'm never quite sure about what foods I should eat and what foods I should not eat. Sometimes I hear that fish is healthy and recommended and then I hear that I should not eat fish at all due to concerns such as mercury levels. It seems that opinion on certain foods -- like fish and carbohydrates and dairy items -- sways and changes, which leaves me uncertain about how I might approach my diet in the best possible way. But opinion on red meat seems to be getting more and more consistent -- as more and more studies indicate that red meat is associated with a variety of health problems. And now red meat appears to raise the risk of developing pancreatic cancer, according to a Swedish report in the International Journal of Cancer.

More than 61,000 women were studied for possible effects of meat, fish, poultry, and egg consumption. After 17 years, 172 of these women were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and researches say it's because of the red meat. I suppose this could have been a coincidence -- and these women were destined for their diagnoses regardless of diet. But researchers conclude that long-term consumption of red meat is associated with an increased risk of pancreatic cancer -- one of the most deadly cancers that is seldom detected at an early, curable stage.

The good news from this study -- there does not seem to be a connection between pancreatic cancer and the consumption of fish and eggs. And the consumption of poultry may actually cut the risk of pancreatic cancer.

I confess. I was once a sun worshiper. I grew up in Ohio where a really sunny day was rare -- so on the occasion when the sun was bright and hot, I was in my back yard or at a swimming pool or at a lake soaking up the warmth and comfort of the rays that mostly burned my skin but gave me a glow that eventually turned the slightest shade of tan and made me feel healthy. It's ironic really -- that I felt healthy when the act of sunbathing is so completely damaging. And I knew this at the time and for the many years that followed -- and I still basked in the sun and vacationed in Florida and sometimes actually drove in the direction of the sun on a overcast day, in search of a tan that was never fully achieved because my skin is pale and fair and was never meant for any amount of sun exposure.

A few years ago -- I can't remember exactly when -- I cut bunches of red wavy locks from my friend's head. I tied Amber's thick hair into one big ponytail, and I cut away. It was an extreme haircut for sure. Amber's long hairstyle was transformed into a shoulder-length bob, and for good reason.

Amber sent her 10-inch ponytail to Locks of Love, a non-profit organization that creates human hair wigs and hairpieces from donated hair and gives them to children under the age of 18 who have lost their hair due a medical condition. This was the first time I'd heard of Locks of Love, and I've since met many others who have purposely grown their hair in order to donate it. I have a neighbor who has done it three or four times now. I know two teenage brothers who have cut their long, dark hair for this great cause. And I've known toddlers whose parents have waited for that first haircut until 10 inches could be cut.

Ten inches is the magic number. Once tied into a ponytail, there must be 10 inches of hair hanging beneath the rubber band. The ponytail is cut off and what remains can be cut into a new style. Locks of Love provides the procedures for mailing the hair, and the details can be found on the Locks of Love website.

I was bald this time last year -- after receiving four rounds of toxic chemotherapy for breast cancer -- and I know how devastating hair loss can be. It affected my self-esteem, and I can only imagine how it affects children whose self-esteem is just forming.

You might consider donating your hair so that a child's confidence can be restored during a time that is so difficult and challenging. I will consider it too -- but I must say that for now, I am enjoying watching my new short, brown, curly hair grow and grow and grow.