TABLE 2.

Change in Alternative Healthy Eating Index score with a $1 increase in spending per food group¹

Variable	Parameter estimate	SE	P value
Nuts, soy, and beans	19.16	0.17	<0.0001
Whole grains	17.67	0.24	<0.0001
Fish and poultry	7.35	0.08	<0.0001
Vegetables	7.09	0.08	<0.0001
Fruit and fruit juice	6.92	0.07	<0.0001
Refined grains	6.61	0.18	<0.0001
Alcohol	1.92	0.03	<0.0001
Eggs	1.50	0.62	0.02
Low-fat dairy	0.25	0.09	<0.01
Snacks and sweets	−3.12	0.15	<0.0001
High-fat dairy	−5.84	0.16	<0.0001
Red and processed meat	−10.56	0.09	<0.0001

¹Costs and Alternative Healthy Eating Index were calorie-adjusted by the residual method by using natural-log transformation for calorie adjustment and by imputing 0.01 to replace costs with a value of zero. The model uses stepwise linear regression with caloric intake included (P value for inclusion and exclusion = 0.15). There was no upper limit on spending.