Using the three-decade longitudinal health records of about 123,000 men and women from the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, researchers from Brown University found that people with diets rich in vitamin A had a significantly reduced risk of developing squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) skin cancer, which occurs in 7 to 11 percent of the population. “We found that higher intake of total vitamin A, retinol and several individual carotenoids, including beta cryptoxanthin, lycopene, lutein and zeaxanthin, was associated with lower risk of SCC,” wrote the authors.