Yeast infections are more common than you think, and certain foods can cause or prevent them.
Yeast infections are caused by an overgrowth of fungi and can disrupt your daily life. Although not that serious and doesn’t generally need urgent medical attention, a yeast infection can harm your physical and emotional health when it’s not treated properly.
By learning about foods that cause yeast infections, you can take note of the foods to eat or avoid if they cause a vaginal yeast infection or help you prevent getting one.
This article explains the relationship between foods and yeast infection and learns about the best practices for a yeast infection-free life by eating the right foods and abstaining from the ones that can cause fungus overgrowth.
Causes of Yeast Infections
There are several reasons in addition to foods why yeast infections occur:
- Overgrowth of fungus in humid or warm conditions,
- Having a weak immune system,
- Taking antibiotics.
Taking antibiotics causes a decrease in the levels of the healthy bacteria you have in your body, which creates an imbalance in your yeast levels.
So, while they can treat other conditions you might have, taking antibiotics creates conditions where a yeast infection can be seen.
Foods With Yeast
Many foods that contain yeast are among the ones we reach for daily. Most of them are among our favorites and hard for us to cut on.
If you are curious about which foods contain high levels of yeast, here is a list to guide you:
Leavened baked goods: Foods like bread, biscuits, croissants, muffins, and other baked goods.
Some cereals: Certain cereals are made with malt and fermented barley made with yeast. You can find this in ingredients like malt extract or malt syrup.
Candies
Hard Ciders, Beer, and Malt Liquor: While these types of alcohol are known to be high in yeast, all kinds of alcohol have different yeast levels.
While the level of their yeast may vary, the alcohol that is said to have the lowest percentage of yeast is known to be vodka.
Kombucha: A refreshing, condensed-like tea, kombucha is a fermented beverage containing yeast. Yeast is actually what gives its distinct density to it.
Soy sauce, Miso
Grapes and Berries
Foods That Cause Yeast Infections
Below are foods that cause yeast infections, and avoiding them may be beneficial.
If you want to lower your risk of getting a yeast infection, stay away from these foods as much as you can:
Foods high in sugar: Sugar is part of the candida diet, promoting fungus overgrowth. Candy, chocolate, ice cream and syrup, and fructose-rich foods like pomegranates, raisins, prunes, and bananas can be counted among foods high in sugar.
Refined carbohydrates: White bread (eating white bread can also aggravate the existing yeast infection), tortillas, and pasta.
Alcohol: Wine, rum, gin, whiskey, vodka, beer, and every other type of alcohol there is. Alcohol also comes with high sugar content and consequently further triggers yeast growth. Therefore, reducing your alcohol intake can help you a lot when trying to avoid yeast infections.
Saturated fats: Foods like processed meat, butter, cheese, and full-fat dairy.
Foods That Prevent Yeast Infections
While you better avoid eating foods to lower your risk of yeast infection, some foods will help you keep your yeast level balanced.
Here are foods to eat that will help you prevent getting a yeast infection:
Omega 3 and omega-6 fatty acid-rich foods: Nuts, salmon, tuna.
Probiotics: Probiotics help you restore beneficial bacteria in your system. Aside from being very good for us in preventing yeast overgrowth in our gut and mouth, probiotics were found to help combat fungal overgrowth in the vagina.
Garlic: Although some stay away because of the “socially unacceptable” breath it might cause, garlic is among the foods you can eat to avoid yeast infections.
Coconut oil: Can be used both orally and topically.
Turmeric
Apple cider vinegar: Loved by many and used as a weight-loss supplement when added to your drinking water, vinegar can help treat your yeast infections if you add it to your bathwater.
Effective Diet for Yeast Infections
Your food choices can have a significant role in you getting a yeast infection. But there are tips you can implement to your lifestyle to make the most out of what the nature and food industry offer you.
Cutting Down on Foods That Cause Yeast Infection
If you’d want to choose the best for you and do your best to prevent getting a yeast infection, these are the foods to avoid with yeast infections:
- Foods that contain simple sugar
- Fermented foods or drinks
- Rice and white flour
Avoiding these foods helps you keep your yeast levels in check.
If you feel like a lifestyle without these foods would be hard to maintain, not forcing yourself to cut them out entirely but consuming them all in moderate to little doses will also help immensely.
There are always benefits to moderating things, and abstinence can put psychological pressure on you, making it hard to keep up with. Good thing you don’t have to do that. Practicing moderation will be helpful enough.
To avoid yeast infections, increasing your intake of fats and healthy proteins will also help a lot—part ways with starchy fruits and vegetables. There are numerous food alternatives to the ones we’ve listed as “to be avoided” here that will leave you satisfied and healthy.
What to Eat to Promote a Healthy Vagina
What you put in your body affects your health. And to have a healthy body, we should make healthy and beneficial dietary choices.
When it comes to vaginal health, some foods can be super beneficial. Eating these over the rest can help promote a healthy vagina:
Yogurt: With its bacteria content, yogurt helps you keep yeast infections at bay. It keeps your vaginal pH level balanced, shooing away lousy odor, itchiness, and dryness.
Broccoli: This super green helps you avoid even ovarian cancer. Rich in antioxidants, broccoli should be one of your primary food choices to reinstall your vaginal health.
Fish: Rich in Omega-3, fish, can help you prevent endometriosis, which is a condition that affects the health of your ovaries and fallopian tubes.
Eggs: Most people suffering from poor vaginal health were lacking in the Vitamin D department. Rich in Vitamin D, eggs, especially egg whites, should have their place in your diet.
Citrus fruits (oranges, limes, etc.): With their heavy doses of Vitamin C content, citrus fruits can help you lower the risks of recurrent vaginitis. It can reduce their occurrence by half, thanks to their ascorbic acid.
How Does the Wrong Diet Lead To Yeast Infections?
There are many things a bad diet can lead to, and with the wrong diet, your chances of getting yeast infections can multiply. Yeast infections can easily be treated with over-the-counter or prescription antifungal medications, but being cautious about your food choices can also help.
If you notice that your yeast infections are recurring and ask yourself, “why do I keep getting yeast infections every month?” this might indicate that your diet includes food that doesn’t go well with keeping a balanced yeast level for your body. It also may result from your iron deficiency, which can be called anemia.
Yeast thrives in warmth and humidity as well. If you have a very poor diet that causes you to fall under the “obese” category, you might suffer from excess skin that creates folds between which yeast can settle. As a result, yeast infections can be among many health conditions someone overweight people have to deal with.
If you frequently suffer from yeast infections, you might be overboard with foods promoting yeast overgrowth. Reducing sugar, taking probiotics, and increasing the yogurt you eat can help tremendously. A well-balanced diet can help you avoid yeast infections and other health problems that can lower your overall quality of life.
If you eat foods that contain high levels of sugar, or if you have diabetes, sticking to a healthy diet can help a lot to lower your risk of having yeast infections.
In addition, a probiotic diet and taking probiotic supplements would be highly recommended to those, especially who are on birth pills or antibiotics.
However, a diet as specific as a candida diet is not seen as a must. Any diet that will help you balance your candida levels can be practiced, like managing candida overgrowth.
Regardless of your food choices, if you have yeast infection symptoms like burning, white, clumpy vaginal discharge, itching, or redness, the best thing to do is consult a medical professional. There is no reason to worry, though, as yeast infections are highly treatable with a prescription or over-the-counter medications.
Top Five Foods to Avoid When Treating Candida Overgrowth
Some foods can cause yeast to thrive as they provide the grounds for them to overgrow. If you want to treat Candida Albicans, the top five foods to cause yeast infection can be counted as follows:
Sugar: Processed sugars, including the brown and white ones, are a huge no-no to avoiding yeast overgrowth. Honey, agave, maple syrup, corn syrup, brown rice syrup, malt… Let’s forget about them all. You can also count other products like packaged seasonings, coffee creamers, and packaged soups among potential sources of sugar.
Simple carbohydrates: White flour and white rice is directly recognized as simple sugar by our metabolism. If you want to avoid yeast overgrowth, crackers, pasta, noodles, and chips should all become a thing of the past.
Yeast: Foods with high levels of yeast can multiply the amount you already have in your body. Staying away from alcohol, fermented products, and almost all types of bread would be highly appreciated by your body. It will thank you.
Mold: Foods with high mold content can contribute to the growth of Candida. From today on, let’s stay away from pickled, smoked, or dried meats; cheese, especially the molded ones like Brie or Camembert; pistachios and peanuts; bottled, jarred, or canned fruits and dried fruits.
Mushrooms: Mushrooms are the fungus that we eat. To prevent fungal overgrowth, don’t add fungus to your bodily fungus—Fungus+fungus=way too much fungus to manage.
Frequently Asked Questions
Although some at-home remedies treat yeast infections, nothing has been seen to eliminate one in only 24 hours.
Eating too much bread can create the grounds for having a yeast infection, or it can trigger the existing condition, but it won’t be the only reason for a yeast infection. Moderation is always the best, but eating too much of anything can’t be seen as the only cause of a medical problem.
Get Professional Help With Doctor Alexa
Many foods cause yeast infections, but you can make some food choices to avoid yeast infections and live a healthier life overall.
If you can’t get rid of yeast infections with the right dietary choices, or if you see that your infection needs medicinal treatment and care from medical professionals, getting the proper help can be life-changing.
As Doctor Alexa, we give you complete control of your health and provide effortless ways to access healthcare services from the comfort of your home. Our compassionate healthcare provider team is here for you to get the quality health treatment that you never thought was possible.
Our goal is to provide affordable, world-class healthcare services and a patient experience that showcases excellence. You deserve nothing less.
To learn more about everything we offer that will help you treat the conditions you are struggling with at an affordable cost and from the comfort of your own home, reach out to Doctoralexa today.
