Table 1.

Composition of variables used for analysis in the MCCS ^{^} study population

Behaviour	Components	Units
LTPA*	Physical activity score (walking, non-vigorous, vigorous)	Times/week
Alcohol		g/day
Diet soft drink		Times/week
Soft drink		Times/week
Healthy snacks	Yoghurt	0 = Consume nuts and yoghurt
		< 0.5 times/week
	Nuts	1 = Consume nuts or yoghurt 0.5 ≥ times/week
Healthy savoury items	Wholemeal bread, rolls, toast	Continuous sum of each variable in times/week
	Wheat germ
	Muesli
	Chicken, boiled or steamed
	Fish, boiled, steamed or baked
Fruit and vegetables (meeting guidelines)	Fruit	0 = Consume fruit < 2 times/day or veg < 5 times/day
	Vegetable (except potato)	1 = Consume fruit ≥ 2 times/day and veg ≥5 times/day
Sweet snacks	Cakes and sweet pastries	Continuous sum of each variable in times/week
	Confectionary
	Chocolate
	Sweet biscuits
Unhealthy savoury items	White bread	Continuous sum of each variable in times/week
	Pies and savoury pastries
	Dim-sims and spring rolls
	Pizza
	Corn and potato chips
	Roast or fried chicken
	Roast or fried potatoes
	Sausages or frankfurters
	Salami or continental sausages
	Manufactured luncheon meats
	Corned beef

* Leisure time physical activity (times/week).

^{^} This study utilises a sample of 30,630 participants from the baseline sample of the Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study (MCCS) which was conducted in Melbourne between 1990 and 1994.