The share of ultra-processed foods and the overall nutritional quality of diets in the US: evidence from a nationally representative cross-sectional study

Table 3 Rotated factor loadings for the first four components from principal component analysis using nutrients, US population aged 1+ years (NHANES 2009–2010) (N = 9,317)

	PC1	PC2	PC3	PC4
Indicator^a	(% expl.^b = 20.4)	(% expl. = 18.0)	(% expl. = 17.7)	(% expl. = 10.9)
Fiber density (g/1,000 kcal)	0.47 ^c	-0.12	0.00	0.09
Sodium density (g/1,000 kcal)	0.04	-0.22	0.39	0.20
Potassium density (mg/1,000 kcal)	0.44	0.15	0.10	-0.08
Iron density (mg/1,000 kcal)	0.02	0.00	-0.09	0.68
Zinc density (mg/1,000 kcal)	-0.08	0.06	0.16	0.53
Phosphorus density (mg/1,000 kcal)	0.09	0.38	0.21	0.08
Magnesium density (mg/1,000 kcal)	0.44	0.05	0.11	0.05
Calcium density (mg/1,000 kcal)	0.02	0.55	-0.07	0.02
Vitamin A density (μg/1,000 kcal)	0.06	0.24	-0.09	0.24
Vitamin C density (mg/1,000 kcal)	0.40	0.07	-0.15	-0.21
Vitamin D density (μg/1,000 kcal)	-0.02	0.55	-0.08	0.00
Protein (% of total energy)	0.05	0.03	0.45	0.14
Carbohydrate (% of total energy)	0.17	0.00	-0.54	0.17
Added sugars (% of total energy)	-0.24	-0.03	-0.41	0.14
Saturated fat (% of total energy)	-0.34	0.30	0.22	-0.16

^aFor details on indicators, see Methods section
^bProportion of the variance explained by each factor after orthogonal varimax rotation (Kaiser on)
^cItems with a factor loading above 0.20 or below -0.20 have been highlighted using boldface

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