R2 and F statistics for the 45 factors we studied (1 exposure and 44 intermediaries).

We calculated the F-statistics for 45 factors, including one exposure (ukb-b-1489) and 44 potential mediators ( ebi-a-GCST90013976-ebi-a-GCST90014019). Due to missing EAF values for the 44 potential mediators, we were unable to compute R²; therefore, we only calculated the F-statistic, which is the square of β divided by the square of the standard error (SE). For cheese intake (ukb-b-1489), we calculated both R² and the F-statistic, and also computed β²/SE² to derive the F-statistic based on this calculation.