A diet known for reducing high blood pressure also cuts kidney disease risk, according to a new study.

The diet, known as DASH for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, was developed to help reduce blood pressure, but previous research shows it is effective in preventing a series of other chronic illnesses including cardiovascular disease.

Kidney disease is one of the most common health problems, affecting 26 million Americans, many of whom don’t know they have it, the National Kidney Foundation says.

People on the DASH diet eat lots of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat dairy foods, as well as poultry, fish, meat, nuts, and beans. The quantities of added fats, red meat, salt, and sugar-laden drinks and foods are kept to a minimum.

Researchers at the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Health in Baltimore began following a group of 15,792 middle-aged adults in 1987. The study began before the DASH diet  was developed in the 1990s.

The participants were not instructed was to what to eat, but instead were queried on what types of food they ate of the items that were eventually to become part of the DASH diet. The researchers then placed participants into categories based on their consumption of these food items.

Meanwhile, over time, researchers determined whether a participant developed kidney disease by determining kidney function. They found the participants with the lowest DASH diet scores (those who ate the fewest healthiest foods and fewer unhealthy items) were 16 percent more likely to develop kidney disease than those with the highest DASH scores (those who ate more of the healthier foods and less of the unhealthy items).

The researchers also found that normal weight participants who followed a DASH diet were less likely to develop kidney disease than overweight or obese participants. "What this tells us is that we need to pay attention to diet before diseases develop.

In addition to offering other health benefits, consuming a DASH-style diet could help reduce the risk of developing kidney disease," said study leader Casey M. Rebholz, an assistant professor at the public health school. 

"The great thing about this finding is that we aren't talking about a fad diet. This is something that many physicians already recommend to help prevent chronic disease,” she added of the findings, which are published in the American Journal of Kidney Diseases.