So, what’s going on here? One type of ketone body is acetone. You might know it best as an ingredient in some nail polish removers. When it accumulates in the body as a result of keto dieting, it can diffuse to your mouth. You may then experience another odor, dubbed “keto breath.” It produces bad breath that smells not unlike your trusty nail polish remover. This raises the question: Can ketones build up in your vaginal area, too, and emit an odor now being called “keto crotch”? Honestly, we doctors and scientists just don’t know yet because there hasn’t exactly been any scientific investigation into “keto crotch.” However, I’ll tell you what I think. I believe “keto crotch” occurs because of a couple big mistakes we might unknowingly be making on the keto diet. So, what can you do about it? It may sound counterintuitive, but consuming more alkaline foods in your keto diet may help bring your vagina back down to its ideal acidic pH while simultaneously bringing your overall bodily pH back to its ideal slightly alkaline pH of 7.3 to 7.45 (which can be determined by testing your urine). While we don’t know this for sure, I have a pretty strong suspicion based on my own trial and error. Years ago, I’d put women on pure ketogenic diets. They loved the fast weight loss but hated certain side effects such as keto flu (which produces headaches, nausea, and general discomfort). Something had to change because these side effects made the diet hard to stick to. So I dug into some research and used myself as a guinea pig. I discovered that adding more alkaline foods to a keto diet made all the difference because it countered the acid-producing side effects of ketogenic dieting, which is how I came up with my alkaline-keto-style diet, which I call the Keto-Green Diet. As I explain in my book The Hormone Fix, these alkaline foods include leafy greens and most other nonstarchy vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage, and Brussels sprouts; plant-based fats such as avocados, coconut oil, and olive oil; herbs like maca; and some fruits. An alkaline keto diet also places less emphasis on more acidic, animal-based fats—which have been found to1 increase bacterial vaginosis. When I polled my own community of women enrolled in my online programs, only about 1 percent reported experiencing “keto crotch.” I attribute this to the fact that they’re following a keto-alkaline lifestyle, which helps keep infection-causing, odor-generating microorganisms in check by creating an ideal acid-alkaline balance throughout the body, including the vagina. My suggestion: Include probiotic-based foods in your diet, such as yogurt, kimchee, and sauerkraut, as well as prebiotics (which feed the “good” probiotic bacteria in your gut) in the form of garlic, leeks, onions, and a variety of fiber-rich foods. These foods support a healthy vaginal pH, gut health, and immune function. For further support, I recommend supplementing with a probiotic formulated with four of the most highly researched species: Bifidobacterium lactis, Bifidobacterium longum, Lactobacillus acidophilus, and Lactobacillus plantarum. The supplement should contain 30 billion CFUs (colony-forming units) of these strains. Take one dose prior to bedtime.
