Introduction

The Canned Food Alliance (CFA) recently conducted a menu pattern and modeling analysis to help translate the Dietary Guidelines and show how making small shifts in dietary choices, including the addition of canned fruits, vegetables, beans, lean meats, and seafood, can increase overall vitamin and mineral intake. Specifically, the analysis looked at:

• How simple shifts and adding convenient, nutritious canned ingredients to meals throughout the day can lead to increased consumption of key nutrients, particularly “nutrients of concern to public health” as identified in the DGA’s (such as vitamin D, calcium, fiber, and potassium) and remain within the dietary recommendations for calories, sodium and added sugar.
• How canned ingredients easily fit into the three dietary patterns outlined in MyPlate: the U.S. Style Healthy Diet, the Healthy Mediterranean Diet, and the Healthy Vegetarian Diet.

Inside the Tool Kit:

Pattern-Specific Nutrient Boosts

• The typical American diet falls short of several key nutrients – 10 of them to be exact – according to the Dietary Guidelines. Whether you follow a typical American, Mediterranean, or Vegetarian diet, we’ve got you covered! Click on each diet pattern for more specific ways to increase nutrients Americans are lacking.