Eating More Fruits, Vegetables Tied to Lower Blood Pressure

TUESDAY, Aug. 6, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Diets high in fruits and vegetables are associated with lower blood pressure, reduced cardiovascular risk, and improved kidney health, possibly due to their base-producing effects, according to a study published online Aug. 6 in The American Journal of Medicine.

Nimrit Goraya, M.D., from Baylor Scott and White Health in Temple, Texas, and colleagues randomly assigned 153 hypertensive macroalbuminuric patients receiving pharmacologic chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular disease protection to get fruits and vegetables, oral sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO₃), or usual care for five years.

The researchers found that chronic kidney disease progression was slower in participants receiving fruits and vegetables or oral NaHCO₃ than usual care (mean −1.08 and −1.17 mL/min/1.73m²/year, respectively, versus −1.94 mL/min/1.73m²/year). Compared with those receiving NaHCO₃ or usual care, in participants receiving fruits and vegetables, systolic blood pressure was lower and cardiovascular disease risk indices showed greater improvement. These benefits of fruits and vegetables were achieved in conjunction with lower doses of pharmacologic chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular disease protection.

“Dietary interventions for chronic disease management are often not recommended and even less often executed because of the many challenges to get patients to implement them,” lead author Donald E. Wesson, M.D., from Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin, said in a statement. “Nevertheless, they are effective, and in this instance, kidney and cardiovascular protective. We must increase our efforts to incorporate them into patient management and more broadly, make healthy diets more accessible to populations at increased risk for kidney and cardiovascular disease.”

Abstract/Full Text