Sometimes maintaining adequate intimate hygiene isn’t enough to keep your vagina odour free. Having a vagina that emits bad odours regardless of how often you wash is an issue faced by women from different parts of the world daily. While it is easy to put it down to bad hygiene practices, the problem may not be that straightforward. The truth is the state of your vaginal flora plays a very big role in the overall health of your vagina and this flora is greatly affected by the foods we eat.

To quote Dr. Jane Brightwood a leading gynaecologist, “Our diet significantly influences our physical and even sexual health. Foods like goron tula form part of a nutritious diet that supports the vagina’s self-cleaning process, preserving the integrity of the vaginal flora,”

It is very important to understand the importance of vaginal flora and we aim to enlighten you on how certain foods can provide positive benefits for your flora. Eating the right types of foods can help your vagina self-clean and remain fresh.

First of all, vaginal flora is like the denizen of bacteria that call your vagina home. Why do the types of vaginal flora that live in your vagina matter you might ask? When the friendly bacteria line the vagina, the bacteria that is bad for your vagina struggles to flourish. It really is a matter of not feeding the bad vaginal flora with the nourishment it likes to thrive and expand. When your diet includes lots of processed foods and foods high in sugar, they provide the fuel that the bad bacteria needs to multiply without being checked and this is what results in the bad bacteria dominating your vagina and creating unpleasant smells.

Understanding the Symbiotic Relationship Between Food and Vaginal Flora

The suggestion of having bacteria in the vagina that could lead to the emission of unpleasant odours isn’t a topic anybody would want to mention outside of the safety of a doctor’s office. This shouldn’t be the case as every woman has good and bad bacteria in their vaginas and being able to maintain the right amounts of good bacteria is directly affected by the foods we eat regularly.

What Part Does Vaginal Flora Play

Vaginal flora is a term used to describe the good and bad bacteria that live in the vagina, the majority of which are lactobacilli. These “good” microbes regulate the pH level of the vagina with an acidic pH as the preferred level. In effect they prevent or discourage the growth of bacteria that aren’t beneficial to the vagina. In summary, vaginal flora is the vagina’s self-cleaning mechanism which keeps it healthy.

What Part Does Diet Play in Vaginal Health?

The foods we eat on a daily basis plays an important role in keeping your vaginal flora balanced. When nutrient rich whole foods are eaten regularly, they boost our overall health and also keep our vaginal bacteria balanced by feeding the good bacteria so the bad bacteria can’t thrive. If on the other hand highly processed foods and foods high in sugar are eaten regularly, then be prepared for the negative consequences this may have on your overall health in general. But we’re focusing the detrimental effects eating these types of foods have on vaginal flora. They provide a fertile breeding environment for the harmful bacteria and knock the pH levels of your vagina out of the acidic zone that it likes. This results in things going awry and bad odours are just one of the potential pitfalls of this imbalance.

Can this situation be fixed? Absolutely, you can reverse things by eating the right vagina flora friendly foods. Here are a few to consider consuming regularly:

• Yoghurt: This is a great source of probiotics, or ‘good bacteria’, aiding in maintaining a healthy balance of bacteria in the vagina. It helps keep yeast infections at bay and maintains the vagina’s optimal pH levels, preventing undesirable odours.
• Fermented foods: These include foods like kimchi, sauerkraut, and kefir. They help the bacteria by introducing more of the good types of bacteria to your vaginal flora.
• Garlic: Known for its antimicrobial properties, consuming garlic regularly can help ward off various infections..
• Cranberries: These are very beneficial for the urinary tract and are often used to treat UTIs. They achieve this by preventing bacteria from attaching themselves to the walls of the urinary tract which in turn prevents infections.
• Gorontula: An exotic fruit that is grown in Africa is used by the Hausa of North Nigeria because of its ability to help the vagina produce more fluids and promote vaginal self-cleaning. It is a fruit eaten to help women who need relief from vaginal dryness. It is well known as a way to naturally cleanse the vagina as it produces more fluids at the right pH to remove bad vaginal flora. It also has other sexual health benefits which include balancing female hormones and increasing female fertility.
• Fruits and vegetables: Vitamin C-rich fruit like kiwi fruit, green bell peppers and acerola cherries play an important role in keeping the immune system strong, but they are also important to help maintain the right environment and conditions for healthy vaginal flora.

It is important to note that the foods listed above are not an immediate solution but instead should be incorporated to prevent future or ongoing issues with vaginal flora. Always speak to your GP for any concerns related to your sexual health. Persistent infections may be a symptom of other problems and a GP would be able to treat these with the right medication. Following treatment changing your diet will help prevent the infection from returning.