“There’s are a naturally acidic PH in [your vagina],” says Bonnie Taub-Dix, RDN, owner of betterthandieting.com and author of Read It Before You Eat It." “Some of the most helpful foods are those that also have good bacteria.” Which is exactly why Greek yogurt tops the list for best lady foods. Probiotics are good bacteria that live in your intestines and play an essential role in everything from mood and weight maintenance to balancing our immune system. And they’re particularly important for women’s vaginal health! It helps balance out your vagina’s PH levels to keep things fresh down there.
A study in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology found that women who took a cranberry juice pill equivalent to two 8-ounce servings of cranberry juice for six weeks after gynecological surgery reduced the rate of UTI occurrence by half. Here’s why: Two ingredients in cranberries—fructose and A-type proanthocyanidins (PAC)—may help prevent UTIs by either selecting against more adhesive strains in the stool or by directly preventing bacteria (and E. coli in particular) from adhering to the bladder wall. However, if you’re going to drink cranberry juice, be mindful of your sugar intake because that can increase your vagina’s PH levels and make you more prone to yeast infections. It’s yet another reason to stop eating so much sugar!
Normally, sweet stuff doesn’t pack a nutritional punch. But then again, not everything is a sweet potato. Sweet potatoes are high in vitamin A, which helps strengthen muscle tissues for strong, healthy vaginal walls, according to Bjork and Taub-Dix.
Kimchi, another probiotic, helps maintain your vagina’s PH levels to slightly acidic, says Cassie Bjork, RD, LD of Healthy Simple Life. Another plus to probiotics? They help ward off bad bacteria as well, keeping infections down there at bay. Also, did you know about these 14 Yogurt-Free Products with Probiotics?