Chronic kidney disease (CKD) impacts approximately 1/7 Americans, who experience asymptomatic progressive CKD leading to catastrophic complications, including kidney failure and death, and this R01 study will extend our previous R21 work to screen, identify , and intervene with culinary medicine philosophy within a community-based setting. The overall goals of the research study are to evaluate (1) urine albumin to creatinine ratio outcomes, (2) secondary endpoints including cardiovascular disease (CVD) measurements (i.e., systolic and diastolic blood pressure, body mass index, hemoglobin A1c, lipids), and (3) dietary adherence and change as well as nutrition knowledge and efficacy. This work will determine whether base-producing fruit and vegetables with or without culinary medicine improves CKD outcomes and associated CVD risk in lower socioeconomic community settings to inform future multi-site trials and population level implementation .
