Fruit and Vegetables Beat Usual Care for Kidney Disease Acidosis in a 10-Year Trial, Researchers Report
In a 108-patient trial followed for ten years, the produce arm had fewer hospital stays and dialysis starts than usual care. The finding is a post hoc analysis shown at a meeting.
Outspoken Digest Nutrition Desk
Friday, October 23, 2026/2 min read
People with moderate chronic kidney disease and a build-up of acid in the blood spent far less time in hospital over ten years if they were given fruit and vegetables rather than usual care, researchers told the American Society of Nephrology's Kidney Week in Denver. The work is a post hoc analysis of a randomised trial, presented on 22 October and described in an ASN news release.
The release does not say whether the analysis has been peer reviewed or published, so it should be read as a signal rather than a settled result.
What did the trial test?
It enrolled 108 adults with stage 3 chronic kidney disease and metabolic acidosis, 36 in each of three groups: fruit and vegetables, oral sodium bicarbonate (the standard medicine), or usual care. The food and the medicine were each aimed at cutting dietary acid by half. Participants were followed yearly for ten years. The corresponding author is Dr Nimrit Goraya of Baylor Scott and White Health.
What were the results?
Against usual care, the fruit and vegetable group had 14 hospitalisations versus 64, 20 emergency department visits versus 88, and 4 progressions to dialysis versus 16. Sodium bicarbonate showed no difference from usual care on these outcomes. Goraya said that treating acidosis with fruit and vegetables was associated with more favourable long-term clinical outcomes, and the release says this came without raising overall health-system or societal costs, though it gives no cost figures.
The same group's design was reported years earlier. HCPLive covered a 2012 Kidney Week presentation of a three-arm, 108-patient trial in which blood pressure fell most in the produce group over three years, although that article did not give kidney function results.
Who should not read this as a prescription?
Several cautions apply. The analysis was post hoc, meaning exploratory, with small groups, and the release does not describe blinding or adherence. Food cannot be hidden from the person eating it. Most important, potassium is a risk in advanced kidney disease. A 2025 review in the Journal of Clinical Medicine argues routine potassium restriction lacks strong evidence and that intake should be individualised, but notes high potassium becomes more common as kidney function falls, especially below 30 mL/min/1.73 m2 and with certain medicines, and recommends renal dietitian involvement and monitoring.
This article is reporting, not medical advice. Decisions about diet, medication or restrictive eating in kidney disease belong with a nephrologist or renal dietitian who knows the reader's blood tests and prescriptions.
Peer-reviewed publication of the ten-year data, with potassium results and cost methods, is the next test. Until then the finding adds to a case for studying produce as a treatment, not for swapping it for medicine.
Published in The Outspoken Digest
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Outspoken Digest Nutrition DeskDiet, food science and the evidence behind claims about what we eat.
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