A diet rich in plant foods is good for your health in many ways - even for body parts you may not think about very often. Kidney disease may not get as much attention as, say, strokes or heart attacks, but roughly 23 million American adults have chronic kidney disease. This condition can leave people in need of dialysis or a kidney transplant.

A new study from Harvard researchers suggests that diet may play a role in kidney health. The researchers included more than 3,000 women who reported the foods they ate and took tests of their kidney function in 1989 and 2000.

Women who closely followed a Western-type diet, with lots of red meat, saturated fat, and sweets, were more likely to have a fast decline in a measurement of their kidney function than women who didn't follow this type of diet. They were also more likely to have a type of protein in their urine that points to kidney damage.

However, women who closely followed the so-called DASH diet - with lots of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains - were less likely to have a fast decline in their kidney function tests. To learn more about the DASH diet, visit the National Institutes of Health online. I'm Dr. Cindy Haines of HealthDay TV, with the news that doctors are reading; health news that matters to you.