Children and adults who eat canned fruits and vegetables might have a healthier diet than people who don’t, though they may also consume more calories and sugar, a recent U.S. study suggests.
Researchers analyzed data collected from 2001 to 2010 from almost 42,000 American children and adults, scoring the overall quality of their diets based their consumption of these foods as well as whole grains, dairy, protein, seafood and limited amounts of salt, sugars and empty calories.
Adults who consumed canned fruits and vegetables had an average diet quality score of 49 on a scale of 0 to 100, compared with 47.4 for their peers who didn’t eat these foods. For children, eating these canned goods was linked to an average diet score of 45.8, compared with 43.3 without these foods.
About 11% of these individuals ate canned vegetables and fruits on any given day. Overall, these people tended to consume higher amounts of certain nutrients as well as more calories, sugar and fat, according to the study online November 23 in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
“By consuming fruits and vegetables, one may consume fewer foods that have lower nutritional value,” said study co-author Marjorie Freedman of San Jose State University in California.
“Thus, it makes sense that those who consume canned fruits and vegetables – most likely in conjunction with other types of fruits and vegetables – would have higher intake of certain nutrients and higher quality diets,” Freedman added by email.
The study was funded by the Canned Food Alliance, a consortium of steelmakers, can manufacturers, food processors and others.
While the study did find a higher quality diet linked to canned fruits and vegetables, it also set out to assess whether eating these things might be linked to a healthier weight or blood pressure. But weight, waist circumference and blood pressure were similar whether or not people consumed canned fruits and vegetables.
Children and adults who ate canned vegetables and fruits had similar levels of salt and added sugars in their diets, the study found.
Kids whose diets included these canned items also consumed more protein, vitamin A, calcium, and magnesium.
The study wasn’t designed to see whether canned fruits and veggies might be healthier than fresh or frozen alternatives.
