[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":205},["ShallowReactive",2],{"content-route-/en/research/fermented-foods-vvc-bv-review-2025":3},{"state":4,"owner":4,"route":5,"locale":6,"template":7,"content":21,"projection":187,"alternates":196},"target","/en/research/fermented-foods-vvc-bv-review-2025","en-US",{"kind":8,"family":8,"sectionKeys":9},"research-summary",[10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20],"bottom-line","why-source-matters","study-population","tested","results","applicability","limitations","contribution","practical-change","funding-conflicts","source",{"kind":8,"title":22,"description":23,"firstPublished":24,"evidenceAsOf":24,"lastUpdated":24,"changeNote":25,"research":26,"relations":72,"body":76},"Fermented foods for BV and vaginal yeast infection","A 2025 review found yogurt-only human studies for BV or VVC, with mixed methods and no pooled result; it did not test Polish fermented foods.","2026-10-08","Published contextual summary of yogurt-only human food studies for BV/VVC; no Candida claim or practical action changed.",{"sourceId":27,"studyType":28,"population":29,"sampleScale":30,"contribution":31,"contributionRationale":32,"relatedEvidenceMap":33,"funding":34,"conflicts":35,"paperDate":36,"results":37,"applicability":44,"limitations":52,"practicalChange":71},"akpinar-fermented-foods-vvc-2025","Systematic review with separate clinical-food and food-science mapping phases","Phase I included human studies of orally consumed fermented foods for BV or VVC in women aged 13 years or older; settings and populations varied, including pregnancy and HIV.","9 Phase I studies (6 intervention and 3 observational); the review did not report a pooled participant total or meta-analysis.","contextual","The review maps a small, heterogeneous human literature in which all included fermented foods were yogurt or yogurt drinks. It reports no trial of named Polish staples and does not establish a general food effect. Its separate supplement-strain-to-food-fermentation mapping is not clinical evidence about fermented foods or probiotic supplements.","/en/research/evidence/broad-candida-claims","The work was supported by COST Action PIMENTO CA20128 through the European Cooperation in Science and Technology.","The authors declared no commercial or financial relationships that could be a conflict; JD-S disclosed Frontiers editorial board membership at submission and stated that it did not affect peer review or the final decision.","2025-11-21",[38,39,40,41,42,43],"Phase I included 9 studies (6 intervention and 3 observational). All 9 tested yogurt or yogurt drinks; the review did not pool results because of clinical and methodological heterogeneity.","For VVC, Hilton et al. reported that infections decreased by a factor of 3 during the yogurt period (p=.001), but only 13 of 33 entrants completed the crossover and the review table gives no absolute episode counts, period-specific denominators, or confidence interval.","In the mixed Shalev cohort, 46 participants entered (20 with BV, 18 with VVC, and 8 with both); 7 completed overall. Candida-positive cultures reportedly fell from 60% in the first month to 20–28% after 2 months in both live-yogurt and pasteurized-yogurt periods; the review reports no significant VVC difference between periods (p=.67) and supplies no numerators or culture denominators.","Hu et al. described a nonrandomized pilot of 24 women comparing probiotic and non-probiotic yogurts. The review reports fewer women with vaginal fungal colonization during probiotic-yogurt intake and a DanActive result of p=.03, but gives no arm sizes, colonization counts, or clinical VVC cure or symptom counts.","In the BV adjunct study by Laue et al., all participants received metronidazole. At 4 weeks, Amsel-defined BV-free results were 17/17 with yogurt drink versus 11/17 with placebo drink (p=.006); Nugent-defined results were 16/16 versus 13/17 (p=.103). The table reports different endpoint denominators and 17/18 completion in each arm.","Phase II found 9 of 54 oral-supplement strains in 120 food-science fermentation articles. This was a mapping of fermentation research, not a clinical test of those foods or of supplement effects.",{"appliesTo":45,"doesNotApplyTo":48},[46,47],"What the review found in human studies of orally consumed yogurt or yogurt drinks for BV and VVC through 2024.","The distinction between clinical fermented-food studies and the review's separate food-science mapping of supplement strains.",[49,50,51],"Whether sauerkraut, fermented cucumbers, żurek, or another fermented food other than dairy treats BV, VVC, intestinal Candida, or broad symptoms.","Whether a Candida-labelled diet treats intestinal Candida or broad symptoms.","Whether probiotic supplements prevent recurrence, replace antifungal treatment, treat broad symptoms, or share effects with yogurt.",[53,56,59,62,65,68],{"finding":54,"limitation":55},"The review identified 9 human fermented-food studies, all of yogurt or yogurt drinks, across BV and VVC.","The studies differed in population, intervention, comparator, outcome, and follow-up; all-food or all-condition effects cannot be inferred, and no meta-analysis was feasible.",{"finding":57,"limitation":58},"Some small older VVC studies reported favorable findings.","Hilton had 13/33 completers; Shalev had 7/46. Absolute event counts, denominators, or uncertainty estimates are missing for key outcomes, so the findings do not establish a reliable effect size.",{"finding":60,"limitation":61},"Amsel-defined BV-free results favored adjunct yogurt drink in one small trial, while the Nugent-defined comparison was not statistically significant.","All participants received metronidazole; the review's endpoint denominators differ, so this is not evidence for yogurt as replacement therapy or for a general fermented-food effect.",{"finding":63,"limitation":64},"The authors rated 4 of 6 intervention studies at high overall risk of bias and 2 at low risk.","These are the review authors' RoB 2 assessments. The review describes certainty as moderate at best but reports no formal GRADE assessment.",{"finding":66,"limitation":67},"No systematic adverse-event results or denominators were reported for the included human food studies.","Missing adverse-event reporting does not establish safety; the review's separate narrative precaution is not trial safety evidence.",{"finding":69,"limitation":70},"Phase II mapped oral probiotic supplement strains to food-fermentation research.","Food-science use of a strain is not a clinical outcome study of fermented food and does not establish supplement efficacy.","No practical change. The review does not establish a general fermented-food effect, test named Polish staples, or support a Candida diet or probiotic-supplement action. Keep BV and VVC outcomes separate; absence of trial safety data is not evidence of safety.",[73],{"group":74,"route":33,"label":75},"evidence","Broad Candida claims evidence map",{"type":77,"value":78,"toc":183},"minimark",[79,87,99,105,111,126,132,141,147,153,159],[80,81,83],"content-section",{"section-key":10,"title":82},"Bottom line",[84,85,86],"p",{},"A 2025 systematic review found nine human studies of fermented foods for bacterial vaginosis (BV) or vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC). Every food studied was yogurt or a yogurt drink. Methods and results varied, and some trials had substantial attrition or incomplete reporting; the review did not pool results. It does not establish a general benefit from fermented foods or address Polish staples such as sauerkraut or żurek.",[80,88,90],{"section-key":11,"title":89},"Why this source matters",[84,91,92,93,98],{},"This review brings together the clinical studies that directly tested orally consumed fermented foods for BV or VVC and documents a gap between that literature and food-science research. The ",[94,95,97],"a",{"href":96},"/en/research/evidence/broad-candida-claims/","broad Candida claims evidence map"," keeps its food findings separate from probiotic-supplement evidence, Candida-labelled diets, and intestinal Candida claims.",[80,100,102],{"section-key":12,"title":101},"Study and population",[84,103,104],{},"The review had two phases: Phase I and Phase II. Phase I searched human intervention and observational studies of fermented foods and BV/VVC from 1970 through 2024. It included nine studies: six intervention studies and three observational studies, in populations ranging from pregnant participants to women living with HIV. Phase II had two parts: Phase IIa identified oral probiotic-supplement trials and strains, and Phase IIb searched food-science studies for fermentation uses of those strains. These parts answer different questions from Phase I's clinical-food review.",[80,106,108],{"section-key":13,"title":107},"What was tested",[84,109,110],{},"All nine Phase I clinical studies used yogurt or a yogurt drink. Interventions, comparators, and follow-up differed. Some studies compared yogurt with no yogurt or another yogurt; others tested a yogurt drink alongside standard BV treatment. The review did not study sauerkraut, fermented cucumbers, żurek, a Candida-labelled diet, or intestinal Candida treatment. Phase II mapped supplement strains used in fermentation research; it did not test fermented foods or supplements for clinical outcomes.",[80,112,114,117,120,123],{"section-key":14,"title":113},"Results",[84,115,116],{},"The review did not calculate one pooled effect. For VVC, Hilton et al. reported that infections fell by a factor of 3 during the yogurt period (p=.001), but only 13 of 33 women who entered completed the crossover; the review table gives no absolute episode counts or period denominators. In the mixed Shalev cohort, 46 participants entered (20 with BV, 18 with VVC, and 8 with both), and 7 completed overall. Candida-positive cultures reportedly fell from 60% in the first month to 20–28% after two months in both the live-yogurt and pasteurized-yogurt periods, with no significant VVC difference between periods (p=.67); the review gives no culture numerators or denominators.",[84,118,119],{},"Hu et al. described a nonrandomized pilot with 24 women comparing probiotic and non-probiotic yogurts. The review reports fewer women with vaginal fungal colonization during probiotic-yogurt intake and a DanActive result of p=.03, but gives no arm sizes, colonization counts, or clinical VVC cure or symptom counts. Colonization is not the same outcome as clinical VVC cure.",[84,121,122],{},"For BV, the studies tested different interventions and outcomes. In Laue et al., everyone received metronidazole. At four weeks, Amsel-defined BV-free results were 17/17 with adjunct yogurt drink and 11/17 with placebo drink (p=.006); Nugent-defined results were 16/16 and 13/17 (p=.103). The table also reports 17/18 completion in each arm and different denominators for some endpoints. Dols et al. reported cure rates of 92% with probiotic yogurt and 89% with standard yogurt, but the review table does not specify arm denominators or the cure definition. Hantoushzadeh et al. reported the same cure rates for yogurt and clindamycin without giving cure counts. These results cannot be combined as one yogurt effect.",[84,124,125],{},"In its separate food-science phase, the review found 9 of 54 oral-supplement strains in 120 fermentation articles. That is a strain-use map, not evidence that foods made with those strains prevent or treat BV/VVC, and not a test of probiotic supplements.",[80,127,129],{"section-key":15,"title":128},"Applicability",[84,130,131],{},"The clinical evidence applies only to the yogurt and yogurt-drink interventions, populations, and outcomes summarized in this review. It does not show that Polish fermented staples have the same organisms, dose, or clinical effect. BV outcomes are not VVC outcomes, a vaginal outcome does not establish treatment of intestinal Candida or broad symptoms, and fermented-food findings do not establish probiotic-supplement effects.",[80,133,135,138],{"section-key":16,"title":134},"Limitations",[84,136,137],{},"The studies were clinically and methodologically heterogeneous, so the authors did not perform a meta-analysis. Two older crossover reports had substantial attrition: 13/33 completed Hilton and 7/46 completed Shalev. Several results lack event counts, arm denominators, outcome definitions, or confidence intervals. The authors judged four of six intervention studies at high overall risk of bias and two at low risk; their “moderate at best” certainty wording was not a formal GRADE rating. The review notes that all identified studies reported positive outcomes, raising a publication-bias concern, but it did not report a formal publication-bias test.",[84,139,140],{},"The tables do not present systematic adverse-event results for the human studies. That reporting gap cannot be read as evidence that the foods or interventions are safe. Phase II food-science studies do not fill the clinical-outcome gap.",[80,142,144],{"section-key":17,"title":143},"Contribution to the evidence",[84,145,146],{},"Contextual. The review shows that the identified human fermented-food evidence through 2024 was yogurt-only, heterogeneous, and too inconsistently reported for a pooled estimate. It found no clinical study of named Polish staples. It does not establish a general food effect or change the separate evidence assessments for BV, VVC, Candida diets, or probiotic supplements.",[80,148,150],{"section-key":18,"title":149},"Practical change",[84,151,152],{},"No practical change. This review does not support using yogurt, Polish fermented staples, or a probiotic supplement as a general Candida or vaginal-infection treatment. It also does not establish harm or safety. Keep food choices separate from treatment decisions and use the relevant condition-specific guidance.",[80,154,156],{"section-key":19,"title":155},"Funding and conflicts",[84,157,158],{},"The work was supported by COST Action PIMENTO CA20128 through the European Cooperation in Science and Technology. The authors declared no commercial or financial relationships that could be a conflict. JD-S disclosed Frontiers editorial board membership at submission and stated it did not affect peer review or the final decision.",[80,160,162],{"section-key":20,"title":161},"Source",[84,163,164,170,171,176,177,182],{},[94,165,169],{"href":166,"rel":167},"https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3389/fnut.2025.1658988/full",[168],"nofollow","Read the original Frontiers in Nutrition article"," (published November 21, 2025; ",[94,172,175],{"href":173,"rel":174},"https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2025.1658988",[168],"DOI: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1658988","). The full text is also available from ",[94,178,181],{"href":179,"rel":180},"https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12679833/",[168],"PubMed Central",".",{"title":184,"searchDepth":185,"depth":185,"links":186},"",2,[],{"sources":188,"claims":194,"safety":195},[189],{"sourceId":27,"title":190,"canonicalId":191,"canonicalUrl":166,"publisher":192,"sourceType":193,"publicationDate":36,"lastChecked":24},"Efficacy of fermented foods for the prevention and treatment of bacterial vaginosis and vulvovaginal candidiasis","PMID:41356810; DOI:10.3389/fnut.2025.1658988","Frontiers in Nutrition","systematic-review",[],[],[197,200,203],{"rel":198,"hreflang":6,"href":199},"alternate","https://candipedia.org/en/research/fermented-foods-vvc-bv-review-2025/",{"rel":198,"hreflang":201,"href":202},"pl-PL","https://candipedia.org/pl/research/fermentowana-zywnosc-vvc-bv-przeglad-2025/",{"rel":198,"hreflang":204,"href":199},"x-default",1791487498291]