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, , 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 .
” “When it comes to women’s health and food and diet, my main take home for people is to not overthink it,” Sharp says. Enjoying a diet in a variety of probiotics, prebiotics and water can help support vaginal health. Foods that have lactobacillus, a probiotic, 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, . “We do have research showing that probiotics may help to reduce the reoccurrence bacterial vaginosis or the symptoms of bacterial vaginosis,” Sharp says. Foods that have probiotics in them include: 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 says. “We really want to make sure that it’s just part of our normal health routine in our diet to try to get more of the fermented foods.
” Probiotics work best if people are eating prebiotics as well. “We’re looking at things like bran and beans and the fruits and vegetables because that does provide the prebiotics that are critically important for those probiotics to flourish,” Leslie Bonci, dietitian and owner of Active Eating Advice, tells TODAY.com.
Prebiotics provide the “fuel” for the probiotics. “If we’re focusing on the probiotics, which are the fermented foods, and the prebiotics, which are the high fiber carbohydrates ..
. that’s the winning combination here for a healthy gut and a healthy vagina,” Sharp says. Maya Feller, dietitian and author of the book “Eating from Our Roots,” says research looking at bacterial vaginosis also looked at the role anti-inflammatory patterns of eating play in reducing symptoms.
Anti-inflammatory patterns of eating often include foods with prebiotics in them. “They looked really specifically at vegetarian patterns of eating. Particularly .
.. having eggs and vegetables, beans, greens all of the time was great when you think of vaginal health,” she tells TODAY.
com. “That makes sense because we’re talking about prebiotics that are found in those vegetables being nourishment for probiotics.” Foods rich in prebiotics include: Sharp notes research indicates that a diet full of high glycemic index foods is associated with the occurrence of bacterial vaginosis.
High glycemic index foods cause one’s blood sugar to spike, according to the . “There does seem to be a relationship between high glycemic index food and bacterial vaginosis,” Sharp says. Foods with a high glycemic index include: Being hydrated is important to overall health, and that stays true when it comes to vaginal health as well.
“It is critically important to drink water,” Bonci says. “Water is not just necessary for inside of the cells. It’s important for lubrication.
It’s important for elimination. It’s important for a lot of body functioning.” Though people do not only need to get water by guzzling bottle after bottle of it.
Water is in a lot of fruits and vegetables, Bonci says, and eating such foods or enjoying coffee or tea can be other ways to include more water in one’s daily life. People in menopause are more likely to develop because hormonal changes can allow bad bacteria to flourish. Drinking enough water to be hydrated could also help stave off UTIs for some — though there’s little research on it or an amount people should consume.
"If we’re talking about urinary health and vaginal health, you want to engage in being well hydrated and keeping that pH fairly low,” Feller says. Having enough water in one’s diet often helps people feel better overall. “Being mindful about hydrating adequately is supportive of whole-body health,” Feller says.
“That’s a major part of thinking about vaginal health.” Meghan Holohan is a digital health reporter for TODAY.com and covers patient-centered stories, women’s health, disability and rare diseases.
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