Conventional health education is used to increase study participant knowledge of practical strategies for detecting and treating common cancers early, before cancers have metastasized. Additional instruction is devoted to the biology and physiology of the cancer process. Although some mention will be made of the importance of maintaining a healthy weight for minimizing lifetime risk of certain cancers, most of the focus will be on episodic cancer screening, e.g., mammograms, PAP smears, colonoscopies, etc. for prevention of death from cancer.

Self-report questions about adherence to MyPlate.gov recommendations. These include questions about daily fruit intake, vegetable intake, replacement of sugary beverages with water, effort to make at least 1/2 of grain intake whole grain, effort to seek out lower sodium options, and daily intake of non-fat or low-fat milk.

Block Food Frequency assessment conducted in Spanish by interview. Information will include estimate of total fruit and vegetable intake over the last 6 months.

Measure of waist circumference, a common predictor of cardiovascular risk

Bruce protocol treadmill test. Estimate the VO2max (maximum aerobic capacity) using Foster's equation.

Metabolic syndrome marker levels. The ATP III criteria for metabolic syndrome markers include:

• sex-specific excess waist circumference (men > 102 cm, women >88 cm),
• fasting plasma triglycerides >= 120 mg/dl,
• fasting plasma HDL(men)<40 or (women)<50 mg/dl,
• blood pressure >=135/85,
• fasting glucose >=110 mg/dl). Each subject's metabolic syndrome marker level can range between zero and five, with zero representing no metabolic syndrome risk and five representing maximum risk. The a priori expectation is that each marker will be treated as equally important but this study will provide the opportunity to examine this assumption critically.

Plasma lipids to be measured include LDL-cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol and triglycerides. Blood samples will be obtained by venipuncture.

Blood pressure will be assessed in study participants sitting quietly by trained personnel using regularly calibrated sphygmomanometry.

International Physical Activity Questionnaire - short form (IPAQ-short). Questions ask about the number of days in the last 7 days that the participant exercised vigorously or moderately vigorously. Follow-up questions query the participant about the time (minutes & hours) spent per day in doing vigorous or moderately vigorous physical activity on those days when they exercised.

Body mass index (BMI) obtained by taking the ratio of measured weight (kg) to measured height (m). Weight is obtained using a regularly calibrated balance beam scale. Height is obtained using a stationary stadiometer.

The SF-12 is a well-accepted short form of the well-known SF-36 quality of life instrument.

Questionnaire includes 11 items that query the participant about weight control strategies used in the last year, including: exercise, restricting calories, fasting, diet pills, vomiting / laxative use, joining a gym, joining a commercial weight loss program such as WeightWatchers, meal replacement products, herbal medicines, diet bars, restriction on TV watching.

Flow-mediated dilation is the most widely used non-invasive test for assessing endothelial function, that is, the functional status of the inner lining of the major blood vessels. This technique measures endothelial function by inducing reactive hyperemia (blood volume expansion) via temporary arterial occlusion (blocking blood flow with inflated blood pressure cuff) and measuring the resultant relative increase in blood vessel diameter via ultrasound.

List of 10 self-efficacy items that assess the study participant's confidence that she/he can adhere to various features of the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet.

Mental health index-5 (MHI-5) consists of 5 questionnaire items designed to assess emotional well-being.