Fruit and vegetables beat the pill: a ten-year trial for kidneys

When kidneys falter, acid builds up in the blood — usually treated with sodium bicarbonate tablets. A ten-year randomised trial presented at Kidney Week asked a simpler question: what if patients just ate more fruit and vegetables? Among 108 adults with stage 3 kidney disease, the produce group had 14 hospitalisations against 64 in usual care, 20 emergency visits against 88, and only 4 progressions to dialysis against 16 — at no extra cost, while the bicarbonate group saw no such benefit. Nimrit Goraya of Baylor Scott & White Health led the work. Sometimes the prescription grows in a garden.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: behaviour campaign