A 10-year clinical trial suggests that eating certain fruits and vegetables may help people with chronic kidney disease (CKD) reduce hospital visits linked to excess acid in the body.
The study involved 108 adults with stage 3 CKD and metabolic acidosis, a condition in which the body contains too much acid.
Researchers divided the participants into three groups of 36.
One group received fruits and vegetables that help reduce acid levels, another took sodium bicarbonate, and the third received standard medical care.
Sodium bicarbonate is commonly used to manage excess acid in people with kidney disease.
Both the fruit-and-vegetable diet and sodium bicarbonate treatment were designed to reduce dietary acid levels by 50%.
This allowed researchers to compare the effects of the two approaches over time.
Participants were followed for 10 years, with researchers recording 115 hospital admissions and 166 emergency department visits across the three groups.
During the study, 34 participants also required dialysis.
Compared with the usual care group, the fruit-and-vegetable group had fewer hospitalisations (14 versus 64), fewer emergency department visits (20 versus 88), and less progression to dialysis (4 versus 16).
There was no difference between those given sodium bicarbonate compared with usual care in relation to these outcomes.
The findings highlight the importance of diet, particularly involving fruits and vegetables, in managing kidney disease.
However, people with CKD should consult their doctors before making major dietary changes, as some fruits and vegetables contain high levels of potassium, which can be dangerous for people whose kidneys cannot remove it effectively.
“These findings support evaluating dietary interventions in chronic kidney disease not only at the individual patient level, but also at the population level, where the cumulative clinical and economic benefits may be substantial.
They also highlight the potential quality-of-life and health system value of investing in fruits and vegetables as a treatment strategy, particularly when favourable clinical outcomes can be achieved without increasing overall costs,” says study corresponding author and American neurologist Dr Nimrit Goraya.
The study findings were presented at the American Society of Neurology (ASN) Kidney Week held on Oct 21-25 (2026) in Denver, Colorado. – dpa
