RESULTS - Table 1 illustrates characteristics of the food pattern score and its relation with the nine food groups constituting the simplified food pattern score. The factor loadings were estimated within the RRR procedure and represent the correlation of the food group with the original (nonsimplified) score. Initially, all 33 food groups were ranked by decreasing absolute factor loadings. Only those with a loading ≥0.2 were retained for the simplified score and are shown here. Red meat and low-fiber bread and cereal explained 19.3 and 18.1%, respectively, of the variation in the pattern score. Taken together, all nine food groups explained 72.8% of food pattern score variation.