REMEMBER when Kim and Kourtney Kardashian claims that pineapple made their vaginas smell sweeter?
While there’s no scientific evidence to support the claim that the fruit actually does change the smell, that’s not to say that diet doesn’t have an impact on things down below.
In fact, plenty of experts do believe that food plays a vital role in vaginal health.
Many people claim to have “cured” everyday problems like bacterial vaginosis (BV) through their diet.
While there’s limited evidence either way, what you eat can make you more prone to infection.
Research has shown how eating a high-fat, high-calorie, low-vitamin diet can increase the risk of developing bacterial vaginosis.
Scientists assessed 1,521 women – 42 per cent of whom had BV.
They noticed that those women who had “severe BV” (14.9 per cent) also ate more dietary fat and consumed less folate, vitamin E and calcium – three vitamins and minerals that decrease infection risk.
But Dr Caroline Mitchell, director of the vulvovaginal disorders program at Mass General Hospital in the states, told Refinery29 more research is needed.
“Part of the problem is we don’t really know what causes bacterial vaginosis.”
She told the site that the link between gut and vaginal bacteria “is not a direct, straight line but there’s definitely a link”.
Yeast loves sugar, warmth and moisture – so if you’re eating tonnes of sweets then you could be creating the perfect environment for thrush to grow.
Trush is more common in people with high sugar levels because it’s an infection that likes glucose.
That’s why it’s more common in diabetics.
Diabetes UK says that having a dry mouth coupled with a higher amount of glucose in your saliva can also make it easier for thrush to develop.
Thrush is a super common infection that 75 per cent of women will get at some point in their lives.
It’s not an STI and it’s usually harmless.
You’ll often need antifungal medicine to get rid of thrush. This can be a tablet you take, a tablet you insert into your vagina or a cream to relieve the irritation.
You can buy products from your pharmacist.
Vaginal thrush symptoms include:
Oral thrush symptoms include:
Source: Diabetes UK
Sorry, steak lovers – red meat makes you sweat more and makes your sweat smell.
It’s really hard to digest meat so your body has to work really hard – resulting in you sweating more.
“You can smell worse within two hours of eating red meat,” medicinal chemistry consultant E. Adam Kallel told HuffPo.
And depending on your personal body chemistry, that stench can hang around for up to two weeks.
And red meat may also throw off your vagina’s pH balance again.
Your vagina is naturally acidic but meat tends to be alkaline – which again, may affect how it smells.
It may be great for concentration and metabolism but drinking a load of coffee may not be the best move for your vagina.
It changes the smell of your bodily fluids and that can cause a slight change in your pH balance.
But coffee and other sources of caffeine can also leave you dehydrated.
And if you’re dehydrated, your vagina probably is too.
If your vagina is regularly dehydrated, you can get itchiness and pain down there, which again, can lead to or exacerbate a yeast infection.
The Mayo Clinic says that most people should try to drink at least eight glasses of fluid a day.
If you drink coffee, however, you might want to drink slightly more water.
The surface of your vagina is the same as the inside of your mouth, so the better hydrated you are, the better those membranes will be.
Drinking lots of water will also help get rid of any unpleasant smell from smelly foods you’ve eaten.
You can kind of see how people might think that yoghurt will help with yeast. After all, it contains lots of good bacteria which in theory could help fight off fungus.
But it’s honestly a rubbish idea.
Multiple studies have shown that putting the creamy stuff in your vagina doesn’t do anything beneficial.
Soaking a tampon in yoghurt and putting it into your vagina is nothing more than a waste of a perfectly good yoghurt.
And eating a load of yog won’t make any difference either.
Dr Nick Raine-Fenning, spokesperson for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, told The Sun: “The key, as to everything, is moderation and balance. A healthy diet should contain protein, carbohydrate and fat.
“The carbohydrates should be complex and have a low glycaemic index. The same is true of exercise.”
Dr Nick said that a low glycaemic index diet – which means eating foods that cause blood sugar levels to rise slowly – can be useful to reduce symptoms by improving insulin levels.
“Swapping some high GI foods, such as pasta and sweet potato, for low GI foods, such as brown rice and lean meats or fish, can be helpful, even if a woman does not need to lose weight.
“This is because low GI diets improve the body’s ability to respond to insulin.”
And not only will lowering your blood sugar help you to lose or maintain a healthy weight, but a low GI diet can help to maintain your vaginal health and regulate periods.
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