Our fave foods for a healthy vagina
Keeping your vagina happy and healthy all starts with how you nourish your body. The age-old idiom still rings true: you are what you eat. As it turns out, it’s really no different when it comes to vaginal health.
One of the best things you can take, err...eat, for your vagina is a vitamin like our Vaginal Health Probiotic. It's OBGYN approved and helps keep your vaginal pH balanced so you're healthy and happy.
But besides supplements, our diet is one way to help manage the all-important microbes and hormones that keep our reproductive systems balanced and thriving. Microbes are the living bacterium that make up the microbiome of the vagina, with an average healthy vagina measuring somewhere from 3.8 to 4.5 on the pH scale. These vaginal microbes are often collectively referred to as vaginal flora. If these bacteria fluctuate too much and fall out of line, microorganisms like bacterial vaginosis, yeast infections, or UTIs can take over.
There are a few key ingredients to maintaining healthy reproductive organs, starting with kefir.
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Kefir
A close cousin of yogurt, Kefir is fermented milk that originated hundreds of years ago in Russia. The fermentation process not only elongates the shelf-life of food but also increases nutrient content. Fermented foods contain probiotics, or live bacteria culture, which can help balance the bacteria in the vagina and can also help improve gut health. There are thoughts and small findings that kefir, and other probiotics can hinder growth of certain bacteria commonly found in the vagina, and reduce the pH of the vagina.
If you’re trying to limit your lactose intake, the good news is that kefir is really low in lactose. If you’re avoiding animal products altogether, there are plenty of delicious fermented vegetable options, like kimchi, sauerkraut, or pickled beets.
Fermented foods are easy to make at home, whether it’s a nice cold kefir or spicy kimchi, just make sure to follow a recipe your first time around.
Soy
From edamame to soybeans, and tofu to tempeh, soy comes in lots of different forms. The body breaks down soy foods into phytoestrogens that mimic the effects of estrogen. If you have low estrogen levels for any number of reasons, soy products have the potential to be especially helpful in combatting symptoms like dryness of the vagina and reduced sexual function.
Sweet Potatoes
The benefits of sweet potatoes come from their high concentration of Vitamin A. Studies have time and time again described that there may be a link between Vitamin A intake and fertility and fetal development.
Cranberries
You might have wondered at some point, do cranberries really help with UTIs? It turns out that eating fresh cranberries or drinking concentrated cranberry juice can actually help prevent UTIs for people who experience recurrent infections. Just make sure to avoid the cranberry juice cocktails, all the added sugar can actually lead to yeast infections.
It’s best to steer clear of too many sweets in general, especially if you have a history of yeast infections. Too much sugar can change the pH level of your vagina, creating an environment that is ripe for yeast bacteria to grow.
As obstetrician and gynecologist Dr. Jen Gunter points out in her column in the New York Times, there is absolutely no need to put any food items in your vagina. Dr. Gunter points out that inserting foreign objects in your vagina for nutritional reasons always causes way more harm than good.
The best way to proactively nourish your vagina is through a balanced diet in addition to other healthy practices including drinking plenty of water and exercising your body. Have questions? We’re here to help. Say hi at hi@hellowinx.com.
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