Prevention is better than a cure. When we are proactive about health, we don’t have to fight so hard down the line. That’s why we were thrilled when we heard about research from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. They found that diet can have a massive impact on your risk for chronic kidney disease (CKD).

The study followed 15,792 middle-aged people without CKD. After 24 years, 4,343 people had developed CKD. Researchers saw that people who adhered to a healthy plant-based diet were a 14 percent lower risk than people who didn’t follow a healthy plant diet. The people who stuck to a less healthy — but still plant-based — diet with 11 percent less likely to develop CKD than the individuals who didn’t adhere to that diet.

The better a person’s diet was, the slower their kidneys’ function declined. The findings were the same independent of sociodemographic factors and health behaviors. The research saw that the very best results came from people who had been eating the healthiest diet while at a healthy weight. But, as always, getting on the right track later is still preferable to not changing habits. Eating more healthy plant proteins, oils and fiber can keep your body well.

You should always speak to a doctor before making any radical changes to your health routine; some people are on special diets prescribed to them by health professionals. Moreover, there are many forms of plant-based diets: vegan, pescatarian, vegetarian, flex, no red meat. All of them have different aspects that may have benefits for you or, perhaps, would fit more easily into your lifestyle or tastes. Speak to your doctor or nutritionist to find out what the best diet for you might be.