Eating more fruits and vegetables may do much more than improve the quality of your diet.
A study suggests that adding these foods to daily meals can lower blood pressure while also helping protect the heart and kidneys in people with high blood pressure and kidney problems.
High blood pressure, also called hypertension, affects blood vessels throughout the body. Over time, the extra pressure can damage the heart, brain, and kidneys. It is especially concerning for people with chronic kidney disease because kidney damage and high blood pressure can make each other worse.
Healthy eating has long been recommended as part of blood pressure treatment. The well-known DASH eating plan, for example, encourages fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and other nutritious foods while limiting foods high in salt and unhealthy fats. Studies have repeatedly linked this type of diet with better heart health.
Researchers wanted to understand why fruits and vegetables might also help the kidneys. Dr. Donald E. Wesson of The University of Texas at Austin and his colleagues have studied how the kidneys remove acid produced by the foods people eat. Diets containing large amounts of acid-producing foods, including many animal-based foods, may place additional stress on damaged kidneys.
Fruits and vegetables generally have a different effect. After they are processed by the body, many can reduce the dietary acid load that the kidneys must handle. The researchers therefore tested whether adding more fruits and vegetables could protect the kidneys while also improving cardiovascular health.
The five-year randomized study included 153 people who had high blood pressure and chronic kidney disease. One group received enough fruits and vegetables to add about two to four cups to their usual daily diet. Another group received sodium bicarbonate tablets, which can reduce acid in the body, while a third group received standard medical care.
Both the fruit-and-vegetable approach and sodium bicarbonate helped protect kidney health. However, the people who received fruits and vegetables gained additional benefits. Their blood pressure improved, measures linked with cardiovascular disease were better, and they needed lower doses of blood pressure medicines.
Sodium bicarbonate did not produce the same improvements in blood pressure and heart-related measures. This suggests that fruits and vegetables may help the body in several ways beyond simply reducing dietary acid. They provide fiber, potassium, vitamins, plant compounds, and other nutrients that can support healthy blood vessels and the cardiovascular system.
The findings support the idea that food should play a central role in treating high blood pressure. Medicines remain extremely important for many patients, and people should not stop or reduce prescribed drugs without medical advice. But improving diet may work alongside medication and, for some people, could reduce how much medicine is eventually needed.
The researchers also encouraged people with high blood pressure to ask about kidney health. One useful test is the urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio, or UACR, which checks whether a protein called albumin is leaking into the urine. Higher levels can be an early warning that the kidneys are damaged, even before a person notices symptoms.
People with kidney disease should speak with a doctor or dietitian before making major dietary changes because some may need to limit potassium or other nutrients. The best diet can therefore differ depending on kidney function, medications, and other health conditions.
The study was published in The American Journal of Medicine. Its results add to growing evidence that something as simple as putting more fruits and vegetables on the plate could become an important part of protecting blood pressure, heart health, and kidney function over the long term.
If you care about nutrition, please read studies that vitamin D can help reduce inflammation, and vitamin K may lower your heart disease risk by a third.
For more health information, please see recent studies about foods that could sharp your brain, and results showing cooking food in this way may raise your risk of blindness.
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