Lifestyle Sports: Latest from Food Politics: Industry funded study of the week: canned beans

By Marion Nestle

November 24 2025

Industry funded study of the week: canned beans

I learned about this one from Leslie Raabe, who does media relations for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.

I had to share this link with you. We had quite a discussion about it in our morning Comms team meeting. A study pointing to the benefits of canned beans but funded by cannedbeans.org….If the research is conducted correctly and findings are consistent with other studies, is it appropriate to cite it even if the company funding the research may benefit from its promotion?

She sent a link to the press release: New Study Reveals That Canned Beans Significantly Improve Nutrient Intake and Diet Quality in U.S. Adults.

A recently published study…demonstrates that replacing commonly consumed protein foods with canned beans (including kidney beans, black beans, chickpeas and pinto beans) significantly increased shortfall nutrient intakes and improved diet quality in adults in the United States.

The study: Replacing Protein Foods for Canned Beans Increases Shortfall Nutrient Intakes and Improves Diet Quality in Adults

Methods: A modeling analysis was completed in free-living American adults using data from What We Eat in American 2001-2018, the dietary component of the United States National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
Results: The isocaloric substitution of protein foods with 1 and 2 servings of canned beans daily to the US typical dietary pattern significantly improved shortfall nutrient intakes.
Conclusions: Replacing commonly consumed protein foods with canned beans significantly increased shortfall nutrient intakes and improved diet quality. Greater canned bean consumption should be considered within future dietary recommendations as a strategy to promote nutrient intake shortfalls and improve deficits with current diet quality scores.
Funding: This research was funded by Cannedbeans.org on behalf of Bush’s Brothers & Company and the Coalition for the Advancement of Pulses.

Comment: Why would anyone not believe the results of this study. If you provide foods with more nutrients, diets will be more nutritious. The only thing surprising about this study is that anyone thought it was worth the trouble to do. I can only think of one reason: Canned Beans wants to sell more of them. Will this marketing study do the trick? Time will tell.

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