While fresh produce is beautiful, delicious, and healthy, did you know that many canned goods offer equal or better nutrition than fresh fare? With canning, no produce is out of season. That extended shelf life of canned items makes it easier to eat enough fruits and vegetables, which should fill half your plate, according to the U.S. government’s nutrition education guidelines.

A University of Illinois Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition study that compared fresh, canned, and frozen food found:

• High amounts of vitamin A in canned apricots, carrots, pumpkins, spinach, and sweet potatoes. Little carotene was lost during canning.

• Good to excellent amounts of vitamin C in canned apricots, asparagus, grapefruit, oranges, pineapple, spinach, strawberries, and tomatoes. Some vitamin C was lost during heat treatment.

• Very good sources of folic acid in most canned vegetables and dried, cooked, or canned beans. Scarce information was available about changes during processing.

• Comparable thiamin in canned meats and beans as in freshly cooked.

• Dietary fiber wasn’t affected by canning in canned fruits, vegetables, and beans.

• Canning didn’t affect protein in canned poultry and fish.

• Canned fish had more calcium than fresh-cooked because the small bones became edible after sufficient cooking.

In addition to fresh and frozen produce, canned foods can help you to get enough fruits and vegetables in your day. Remember to check labels, though, for sodium (in large amounts) and other additives.