hands holding a bowl of yogurt topped with blueberries, nuts, and what looks like granola. Another hand is holding a spoon, scooping some yogurt with the toppings. The text emphasizes the importance of eating habits on overall health, including heart health, menstrual cycle, sex life, and vaginal health.

Preaching the benefits of a healthy diet may feel like well-worn advice, but that’s because it really works! Your eating habits affect your overall health, including obvious areas like your heart health and less obvious areas like your menstrual cycle and sex life. Eating healthy foods can keep your vagina healthy by decreasing your risk of infection.

Eating healthy isn’t about following a fad diet or cutting specific food groups off your plate completely. Instead, it’s about following the research on blue zones to determine which foods optimally support your body’s internal functioning.

This image is a world map presenting locations known as "Blue Zones" with noted dietary staples. Blue Zones are regions where people have longer life expectancies. The map highlights Loma Linda (oatmeal, beans, nuts), Nicoya (beans, corn, papaya, peach palms), Sardinia (goat's milk, wine), Okinawa (soybeans, purple sweet potatoes, tofu), and Ikaria (honey, legumes, goat's milk, sage, marjoram, fruits).

Does Diet Really Matter?

close-up of a colorful, healthy meal composed of diced vegetables. It includes sliced tomatoes, shredded carrots, chopped cucumbers, broccoli, and a grain that appears to be quinoa. Overlaid text promotes the benefits of a nutritious diet for maintaining balanced vaginal pH levels and for protection against bacterial vaginosis, yeast infections, UTIs, and STIs.

In short, yes! Diet is one of the most important factors influencing your vaginal health. A healthy diet can help you balance pH levels in your vagina and protect you from bacterial vaginosis, vaginal yeast infections, urinary tract infections (UTI), and even sexually transmitted infections. So how exactly does your diet impact your vaginal health?

Your body contains a mix of helpful bacteria and harmful vaginal bacteria. These beneficial bacteria, called lactobacillus bacteria, help keep infections at bay by limiting the growth of bad, infection-causing bacteria. But what does this have to do with your diet?

Some foods, like probiotic-rich foods or high-fiber foods, help strengthen your body’s levels of good bacteria and maintain the right balance of bacteria. But others, like sugary foods or diets with plenty of processed foods, support the growth of bad bacteria, promoting an imbalance of bacteria that can cause an infection.

Now that you know why your diet matters for your vaginal health, let’s dive into which foods you should (and shouldn’t!) eat for vaginal wellness.

The Best Foods for Vaginal Health

The image is a collage of various foods considered beneficial for vaginal health, each depicted in their own square. The selection includes cranberries, garlic, plain yogurt, avocados, leafy greens, salmon, a variety of nuts, and a glass of water.

Adding these six foods to your diet can help keep your vagina healthy, stave off discomfort, prevent embarrassing symptoms like vaginal odor and vaginal discharge, and even increase your sex drive!

Plain Yogurt

a close-up of a bowl filled with creamy yogurt. The bowl appears to be placed on a white surface, and there's a white spoon with a handle that's likely made of ceramic or plastic. Accompanying text highlights the importance of yogurt's probiotic content for the prevention and treatment of vaginal infections.

Yogurt has been a staple of the human diet for over 7,000 years. For many women, yogurt’s high-probiotic density is essential to preventing and treating vaginal infections. Although many people have ethical objections to consuming dairy, plain yogurt derived from goat or sheep’s milk may be less morally fraught while providing the same probiotic benefits as traditional yogurt.

Whatever form of yogurt you choose to consume, choose plain yogurt sweetened with honey or fruit to avoid adding excess sugar into your diet. Yogurt is a great source of calcium, protein, and probiotics.

Try this recipe for a easy snack or breakfast:

  • ½ cup of plain yogurt
  • 1 teaspoon of honey
  • ½ cup of berries
  • ¼ cup of granola

Mix yogurt and honey together with a spoon. Layer berries and granola on top for a nutritious and delicious meal.

Cranberries

close-up of whole cranberries. The accompanying text mentions the nutritional benefits of cranberries, specifically their content of proanthocyanidins, which are nutrients known to potentially reduce the recurrence of urinary tract infections (UTIs).

Cranberry is an evidence-based method for UTI management, but not in every form. (1) For instance, drinking cranberry juice is not shown to reduce the prevalence of UTIs. That’s because when cranberry juice is processed, many of the nutrients such as phytonutrients and antioxidants are stripped away.

Instead, try eating fresh cranberries or taking cranberry pills for BV. Cranberries contain incredible nutrients known as proanthocyanidins. These nutrients are showing promise in reducing the recurrence of UTI. To add fresh cranberries to your diet, try adding them to plain yogurt or making a cranberry jam.

To make cranberry jam, combine:

  • 1/2 cup of fresh orange juice
  • 1/2 cup of water
  • 1 bag fresh or frozen cranberries (do not use dried)
  • Zest of one orange, about 2 teaspoons
  • Pinch salt

Avocados

sliced avocados in a bowl, with a focus on their health benefits. The text highlights that avocados contain healthy fats, potassium, and Vitamin B6, which are beneficial for sexual health by promoting vaginal lubrication and healthy estrogen levels.

Avocados are rich with healthy fats, potassium and vitamin B-6, which boosts your sexual health by increasing vaginal lubrication and estrogen levels. Just a quarter of a normal-sized avocado is enough to provide you with its incredible benefits. Spread avocados on toast, layer them on tacos, or whip up a batch of fresh guacamole to enjoy this healthy food.

Root Vegetables

a variety of tubers, which are described as highly nutrient-dense, providing a robust source of energy and acting as natural prebiotics. Prebiotics are known for supporting healthy bacteria in the body, contributing to overall well-being, including digestive and possibly vaginal health.

Tubers are root vegetables such as sweet potatoes, beets, carrots, parsnips, and yucca. Although some people may be turned off by tubers’ high carbohydrate content, they’re much healthier for you than carbs coming from table sugar, fruits, or bread. That’s because tubers are much lower on the glycemic index than these other foods.

Tubers are also incredibly nutrient-dense and are a great source of energy. Having a variety of root vegetables in your diet provides your body with many nutrients that work together to optimize your health.

Tubers are also natural prebiotics. Prebiotics feed probiotics in the vagina and help them create hydrogen peroxide and lactic acid, which fight off bad bacteria. A diet rich in prebiotic food sources nourishes your healthy bacteria.

Here’s a recipe for one of our favorite tuber dishes. Combine:

  • 1 cup yucca
  • 1 teaspoon of garlic
  • 1 teaspoon of olive oil
  • Pinch of rock salt and cilantro

Garlic

cluster of garlic bulbs and highlights garlic's health benefits. Garlic is noted for its antifungal and antimicrobial properties, making it a natural choice for addressing symptoms like excessive vaginal discharge, burning, itching, and unusual odors. It's a natural remedy that has been used for its health-supporting qualities in various cultures.

Garlic has antifungal and antimicrobial properties, making it an important component of any vaginal health routine. Research confirms garlic is a natural remedy for excessive vaginal discharge, burning, vaginal itching, and unusual odors. (2)

To reap the benefits of garlic, eat roasted garlic or add it into dishes you cook. Whatever you do, don’t stick garlic cloves up your vagina. This is not only gross, but it also increases your risk of vaginal irritation and infection.

Leafy Green Vegetables

resh, dark leafy greens, highlighting their health benefits. The accompanying text suggests that these greens help purify the blood, which may enhance blood circulation. This improved circulation is noted for potentially increasing vaginal lubrication and stimulation, contributing positively to sexual health. Leafy greens are commonly recommended for their dense nutrient content and various health benefits.

We all know we should be eating more vegetables. But maybe understanding their link to your vaginal health will be the motivation you need to finally put more of them on your plate. Dark leafy greens purify the blood with the help of nutrients present in them, which ultimately enhances blood circulation that increases vaginal lubrication and stimulation. That’s right—eat your veggies for a better sex life!

The Worst Foods for Vaginal Health

illustrations of foods considered detrimental to vaginal health. The items include bottles of alcohol, spears of asparagus, a cup of coffee with a latte art design, a pink frosted doughnut representing processed sugar, a container of fried french fries, and a can of food symbolizing processed goods

Research on the following six foods shows they’re likely to negatively impact your vaginal health. Steer clear of these foods to protect yourself from vaginal infections.

Alcohol

The text warns that high alcohol consumption may lead to vaginal dryness, disrupt estrogen levels, and increase the risk of bacterial vaginosis. This information is likely intended to raise awareness about the effects of alcohol on women's health, specifically regarding reproductive health issues.

Having a glass of wine at night isn’t a big deal, but multiple drinks each night can cause significant problems for your entire body. Hangovers aren’t the only issue that accompany excessive drinking—constant alcohol consumption can cause vaginal dryness, mess with estrogen levels, and even increase your risk of bacterial vaginosis. (3) There’s no need to steer clear of alcohol entirely, but drink responsibly to stay safe and healthy.

Asparagus

fresh asparagus with an overlay of text that suggests eating asparagus may increase vaginal pH. This change in pH can purportedly make the vagina more susceptible to infections such as bacterial vaginosis and yeast infections. The message is likely intended to inform about dietary choices and their potential impact on vaginal health.

Asparagus is an alkaline food, meaning it has a pH higher than 7. The optimal vaginal pH is 4.5, and eating asparagus can increase your vaginal pH. When the vaginal pH is disturbed, it may decrease the levels of healthy bacteria in the vagina, which can make your vagina vulnerable to several vaginal infections including bacterial vaginosis and yeast infections.

Coffee

coffee beans with text suggesting that drinking coffee in moderation may prevent dehydration. This is important because dehydration can contribute to vaginal dryness and increase the risk of infections. It seems to be an educational note on the relationship between hydration, coffee consumption, and vaginal health.

Coffee has controversial effects on your vaginal health. On the one hand, research shows it may help prevent bacterial imbalance caused by antibiotic use. (4) On the other, coffee may make you dehydrated, which can contribute to vaginal dryness and risk of infection. It may also change your vagina’s odor and make your vagina a more favorable environment for yeast to grow in, which can cause yeast infections.

While we’re not advising you cut coffee out of your diet completely, drink it in moderation to avoid becoming dehydrated.

Fried Foods

French fries, with a note that fried foods can increase the risk of bacterial vaginosis and have a negative impact on vaginal pH. The text suggests a possible link between dietary choices and vaginal health, highlighting the idea that certain foods may disrupt the natural balance of the vaginal environment.

Fried foods are high in trans and saturated fats, which are high in calories and hard for the body to digest. They’re also bad for your vaginal health—fried foods increase your risk of getting bacterial vaginosis and change the pH of your vagina. (5)

Processed Sugar

cupcakes with pink frosting, and it includes text explaining that high sugar intake can foster an environment that supports the growth of harmful bacteria. This, in turn, may lead to vaginal infections like yeast infections and bacterial vaginosis. The information is meant to caution against diets high in sugar for maintaining vaginal health.

A diet rich in foods with a high sugar content creates optimum feeding grounds for bad bacteria. Bad bacteria feed on these simple sugars, which can make them grow in number and dominate good lactobacillus bacteria. Over time, a high-sugar diet can contribute to vaginal infections such as vaginal yeast infections and bacterial vaginosis.

Processed Foods

pasta and cheese, and the accompanying text suggests that foods containing gluten or casein may not support the growth of beneficial bacteria. It implies that consuming large quantities of these foods could negatively affect vaginal health. This information could be useful for someone considering dietary choices in relation to their overall well-being, including vaginal health.

Today’s plates are filled with processed foods such as pasta and white bread; foods containing gluten like wheat, barley, and rye; and foods containing casein such as dairy products. Good bacteria like lactobacillus do not grow well when nourished by foods containing gluten casein. That’s why consuming high amounts of processed foods may disrupt your vaginal health. (6) Instead of eating processed foods, increase the number of dark, leafy green, probiotic-rich foods, and fruits in your diet.

Keep Your V Happy With a Healthy Diet

Maintaining a healthy diet and using probiotic supplements can support vaginal health. Probiotic supplements provide beneficial lactobacillus strains to nourish the vaginal microbiome, helping prevent common infections.
Prebiotic + Probiotic
4.9

Our Happy V® Prebiotic + Probiotic was created for anyone who is experiencing symptoms related to Bacterial Vaginosis and Yeast Infections. Eliminate the odor, itch, gut bloating, and other symptoms.

Buy Now
Prebiotic + Probiotic

If you could use some support with your diet, consider adding a probiotic for vaginal health. Probiotic supplements ensure you nourish your vaginal microbiome with the best lactobacillus strains for preventing you from common vaginal infections, and Happy V’s probiotic for women is composed of targeted prebiotic and probiotic strains for maximum effectiveness.