Table 2.

Variables for DIEM score calculation.

Variable ID	Variable name	Descriptor	Example
QTDT	Quality tier per diet type	Diet quality level of a dietary pattern	Quality Tier 1, Standard American Diet
TC-QTDT	Total calories per quality tier per diet type	Representative 3-day menu, ~2,000 calories each	~6,000 total calories
TFG-FL	Total food group servings per food level	Each representative food has a sum of sub food group values from varied food categories	Cheeseburger (beef, bread, cheese, other vegetable, pickled food) = 8
DPC	DIEM parent category	Food category name	Beef
DPCS	DIEM parent category score	Mean score, ranging between 0 to 100, assigned to each parent category	Beef = 100
TFG-DC	Total food group per DIEM category	Sum of sub food group serving values for a DIEM category	Beef = 2.9 servings
TFGC-DC	Total food group calories per DIEM category	Sum of sub food group calories for a DIEM category	Beef = 234 calories
% TFGC-DC	Percent total food group calories per DIEM category against TC-QTDT	Percent of DPC calories to total diet calories	3.5% beef calories
TFGS-DC	Total food group score per DIEM category	Sum of sub food group scores for a DIEM parent category	Total beef score = 3.4
TDS-QTDT	Total DIEM score per quality tier per diet type	Sum of all TFGS-DC per diet quality level of a dietary pattern	Total DIEM score for quality tier 1, Standard American Diet = 17.2