“…Therefore, instead of assessing nutrients or food in isolation, the analysis of dietary patterns considers the combinations present in the overall diet and incorporates the complex interactions that occur among the nutrients. The dietary patterns represent a broader frame of nutrients and food consumption, thus being more appropriate for the study of dietary factors and diseases 7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16 . In order to address these questions, several authors are proposing alternatives to study the global consumption of food, considering that food is usually consumed in a combination of nutrients.…”