When it comes to vaginal health, doing less is more. But there are some basic foods that can boost your vaginal health.
“Focusing on general self-care, drinking water, good hygiene practices, regular doctor’s visits, things like that typically (are) more than enough,” Abbey Sharp, a dietitian and founder of Abbey’s Kitchen tells TODAY.com. “If we want a specific part of our body to be healthy, we need to focus on our entire body system at large.”
Sharp encourages people to avoid taking supplements or using products that claim to “magically detox your vagina.” Enjoying a diet in a variety of probiotics, prebiotics and water can help support vaginal health.
Food rich in probiotics may prevent bacterial vaginosis
Foods that have lactobacillus in them can help promote better vaginal health, in part, by keeping the gut in check.
“The gut is the powerhouse of the rest of the body,” Sharp says. “If the gut is not well, the rest of our body is not going to do so well either.”
There’s limited research examining the role that food plays in vaginal and reproductive health, Sharp notes. Some research looks at how food impacts bacterial vaginosis, which occurs when too much of some bacteria flourishes in the vagina, changing the overall microbiome, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“We do have research showing that probiotics may help to reduce the reoccurrence bacterial vaginosis or the symptoms of bacterial vaginosis,” Sharp says.
Probiotic foods for vaginal health
Foods that have probiotics in them include:
- Greek yogurt
- Kefir
- Kimchi
- Fermented sauerkraut (not pickled)
- Fermented pickles
- Miso
- Kombucha
Sharp says, though, that eating one serving of Greek yogurt or enjoying miso at dinner isn’t enough to change the gut microbiome. It could take weeks or months before people see a difference when adopting new eating patterns.
“It we want to colonize the gut, it takes time, it takes effort, it takes being consistent,” she…
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