Table 2 Factor loadings for three dietary patterns derived by principal component analysis.

Food groups	Components
Food groups	Home food	Eating out noodles	Sugar sweetened beverages
Beef	− 0.022	− 0.044	0.135
Candies and chips	− 0.013	− 0.010	0.160
Chicken egg	0.093	− 0.038	0.025
Dairy products	− 0.021	− 0.027	− 0.146
Fish and shellfish	0.340	0.011	− 0.027
Fresh and dried fruit	0.132	− 0.061	− 0.092
Fried rice and nasi lemak	− 0.633	− 0.421	0.114
Kuih	− 0.143	− 0.088	0.003
Non-starchy vegetables	0.498	− 0.053	− 0.101
Noodles, fried	− 0.151	0.958	− 0.010
Noodles, soup	0.079	0.056	− 0.026
Pau, dim sum and yong tau foo	− 0.046	0.145	− 0.110
Pork	0.168	0.058	− 0.163
Poultry	0.172	− 0.192	0.124
Preserved fish, shell fish, poultry, egg, and meat	0.067	− 0.001	0.016
Preserved vegetables	0.048	0.074	− 0.059
Processed chicken and red meat products	− 0.023	0.003	− 0.030
Processed fish products	− 0.008	0.125	0.053
Refined bread, bun, roll and biscuit	0.154	− 0.079	0.120
Refined traditional cereal meal	0.039	− 0.083	0.126
Sauces	− 0.023	− 0.117	0.066
Soybean curd and legume	0.113	0.014	− 0.006
Spreads (fat)	0.077	− 0.024	0.008
Spreads (sweet)	− 0.027	− 0.010	0.076
Starchy vegetables	0.166	− 0.025	− 0.100
Sugar sweetened beverages	− 0.028	− 0.080	0.996
White rice, glutinuous rice, and plain rice porridge	0.895	− 0.043	0.074

Data expressed as factor loading (correlation coefficient between each food group and dietary pattern); foods groups with factor loadings ≥ 0.1 were bolded to indicate main food groups in each factor; principal component analysis with eigenvalue > 2.0 and orthogonal rotation for derivation of dietary patterns.
Local ethnic-based food names are Kuih—local sweet or savory bite sized snacks; Pau—filled steamed bun; Dim Sum—bite-sized dumpling filled with meat or seafood; Yong Tau Hoo—soybean curd or vegetables filled with fish paste or ground meat; Nasi Lemak—rice cooked in coconut milk.

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