A Statistics Canada study has found "there's room for improvement" in the diets of Canadians in all age groups.

That means Canadians could eat more servings of dark green and orange vegetables, as well as of whole fruits and whole-grain products, says Didier Garriguet, senior analyst in the statistics agency's health analysis division in Ottawa.

"There's room for improvement pretty much everywhere," Garriguet said. "In terms of score, you have the highest score when you are very young and the lowest score when you are a teenager."

The study, Diet Quality in Canada, published in the August online edition of Health Reports, arrived at an average score of 58.8 points out of a possible 100 to measure healthy eating across the country for Canadians aged two and older.

A score below 50 is considered low, a score above 80 is high. Between 50 and 80 is the middle range. The scoring system is based on 11 components to determine healthy eating.

"We wanted to calculate an average score for Canadians to determine how they are following Canada's Food Guide. It's like an exam mark on their diet."

U.S. index adapted

Garriguet, the study's author, determined the score after adapting a 2005 version of the American Healthy Eating Index using Canada's Food Guide and analyzing data from the 2004 Canadian Community Health Survey.

In 2004, Statistics Canada surveyed 35,107 people to determine food and nutrient intake. All of the respondents were asked what and how much they ate and drank over a 24-hour period and a third were asked to recall their food intake for a second 24-hour period.

Garriguet analyzed the 2004 data, using the 2005 adapted index, and assessed the numbers for two aspects of diet quality — adequacy and moderation.

He said women consistently scored higher than men, people with higher levels of education scored higher, immigrants scored higher than people born in Canada, and 25 per cent of teenagers scored less than 50.

Nearly 17 per cent of the population scored below 50, while fewer than one per cent scored more than 80.

Children between the ages of two and eight had the highest scores, with an average of at least 65. Scores fell in early adolescence but improved in later adolescence, with scores reaching a plateau of roughly 55 between the ages of 14 and 30.

Between the ages of 31 and 70, scores ranged between 56 and 58 for men and between 60 and 62 for women. After age 71, men scored an average of 59 while women scored an average of 62.

The 11 components included in the scoring system were: fruit and vegetables, dark green and orange vegetables, whole fruits, grain products, whole-grain products, milk products, meat and alternatives, unsaturated fats, saturated fats, sodium and other foods.

Garriguet said an average score for Canadians in all age groups is useful because future studies will be able to use it to gauge nutritional health in Canada and it can serve as a comparison point.

According to Canada's Food Guide, it is recommended that Canadians eat at least one dark green vegetable and one orange veggie every day, have vegetables and fruit more often than juice, and make sure at least half of their grain products are whole-grain.