Bland, low-fiber foods like bananas, white rice, applesauce, and toast are the classic go-to choices for calming diarrhea, but you don’t need to limit yourself to just those four. A broader range of easy-to-digest foods can help firm up your stool, replace lost nutrients, and get you back to normal eating faster.
The BRAT Diet: A Starting Point, Not the Whole Plan
The BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast) has been recommended for decades as a first-line approach to diarrhea. These foods are gentle on the stomach, low in fat, and unlikely to trigger further irritation. But there’s no clinical research comparing the BRAT diet to other options, and sticking to only those four foods for more than a day or two can leave you short on calories and key nutrients when your body needs them most.
A better approach is to think of BRAT foods as a starting point, then expand. Harvard Health notes that brothy soups, oatmeal, boiled potatoes, crackers, and unsweetened dry cereals are equally easy to digest and provide more nutritional variety. Once your stomach starts to settle, you can add cooked carrots, sweet potatoes without skin, cooked squash like butternut or pumpkin, avocado, eggs, skinless chicken or turkey, and fish.
Why Soluble Fiber Helps Firm Things Up
Not all fiber is created equal when you have diarrhea. Soluble fiber dissolves in water and forms a gel-like material in your stomach that slows digestion. It absorbs excess water in the intestine and adds bulk to loose stool, which is exactly what you want. Insoluble fiber, on the other hand, speeds things along and can make watery stools worse.
Good sources of soluble fiber include oats, bananas, applesauce, avocados, cooked carrots, and barley. Psyllium husk, found in many fiber supplements, is another concentrated source. Peas and beans are high in soluble fiber too, but they can produce gas that makes an already unhappy gut feel worse. Save those for later in your recovery.
Potatoes and Starchy Foods
Boiled or baked white potatoes (without skin) are one of the best recovery foods. They’re bland, easy to digest, and rich in potassium, a mineral you lose rapidly through diarrhea. White rice and plain pasta serve a similar role. These starchy foods give your body quick energy without asking much of your digestive system.
An interesting bonus: when you cook starchy foods like potatoes or rice and then let them cool (ideally overnight in the fridge), some of the digestible starch converts into resistant starch. Resistant starch passes through to the bowel largely undigested and can support gut health during recovery. Even reheating these foods afterward keeps the resistant starch levels high.
Probiotics Can Shorten Diarrhea Duration
Probiotics, whether from food or supplements, introduce beneficial bacteria that can help your gut recover faster. A large Cochrane review found that probiotics reduced the average duration of infectious diarrhea by about 30 hours and cut the risk of diarrhea lasting three or more days by roughly a third.
Two strains stand out in the research. Saccharomyces boulardii, a beneficial yeast available as a supplement, reduced the risk of diarrhea lasting four or more days by nearly 60%. Lactobacillus GG (also called Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG), commonly found in certain yogurts and supplements, showed similar benefits, reducing diarrhea duration by about 31 hours on average and proving especially effective in children with rotavirus.
For food sources, yogurt with live active cultures and kefir are the most accessible options. If dairy is bothering you (more on that below), look for dairy-free fermented foods like miso or a probiotic supplement containing one of the strains above.
Temporary Dairy Sensitivity After a Stomach Bug
A bout of viral gastroenteritis can temporarily damage the lining of your small intestine, reducing its ability to break down lactose, the sugar in milk. This means you may experience worsening diarrhea, bloating, or cramping from dairy foods even if you normally tolerate them fine. This secondary lactose intolerance typically resolves within three to four weeks as the intestinal lining heals.
During that window, you may want to limit milk, ice cream, and soft cheeses. Yogurt and aged hard cheeses tend to be better tolerated because fermentation and aging reduce their lactose content. If you do eat foods containing lactose, a lactase supplement taken at the same time can help with digestion.
Drinks That Help (and Ones That Don’t)
Staying hydrated is the single most important thing during diarrhea, since each loose stool pulls water and electrolytes out of your body. Clear broths, diluted fruit juices, water, and oral rehydration solutions are your best options. Oral rehydration solutions contain the right balance of sodium, potassium, and sugar to replace what you’re losing.
Coffee is one of the biggest culprits to avoid. It increases movement in the small intestine and colon through a mechanism that goes beyond just caffeine. Coffee stimulates gastric and pancreatic secretions and acts on receptors in gut smooth muscle, pushing contents through faster. Surveys of people with irritable bowel syndrome consistently link caffeine consumption to worsened diarrhea symptoms. Alcohol should also be avoided, as it irritates the gut lining and contributes to dehydration.
Carbonated beverages and fruit juices in large quantities can also backfire. The high sugar concentration can pull more water into the intestine, making stool looser rather than firmer.
Sugar-Free Foods Can Make Diarrhea Worse
Sugar alcohols like sorbitol, mannitol, and xylitol are poorly absorbed in the small intestine. When they reach the colon, they increase osmotic pressure, essentially drawing water into the bowel and preventing your body from reabsorbing it. The result is watery diarrhea on top of what you already have.
These sweeteners are common in sugar-free candy, chewing gum, diet beverages, and many “low carb” snack bars. They’re also used as moisturizing agents and preservatives in processed foods where you might not expect them. Check ingredient labels during a bout of diarrhea and avoid anything listing sugar alcohols (ingredients ending in “-ol” like sorbitol, maltitol, or erythritol).
A Practical Recovery Timeline
Everyone recovers at a different pace, but a general framework can help you know what to expect. In the first several hours after symptoms begin, stick to ice chips and small sips of water. After about six hours, if you’re keeping fluids down, move to clear liquids like broth, diluted juice, or oral rehydration solution.
After 24 hours, start introducing bland solids: the BRAT foods, boiled potatoes, crackers, oatmeal, or plain chicken. Over the next few days, gradually widen your diet to include cooked vegetables, eggs, and lean proteins. Most people can return to their normal diet within about a week, though you may want to continue avoiding greasy, spicy, or high-fat foods until your digestion feels fully stable. If you feel better faster, there’s no reason not to move through these stages more quickly.
Feeding Children During Diarrhea
For kids, the old advice to withhold food and stick to clear liquids has been replaced. Current pediatric guidelines recommend continuing a child’s regular age-appropriate diet as soon as they can tolerate oral fluids. Infants should keep breastfeeding or having formula on demand, even during rehydration. Restricting food doesn’t help children recover faster and can leave them low on calories and nutrients when their bodies are working hardest to fight off infection. The key restrictions for children are the same irritants to avoid in adults: fruit juices in large amounts and carbonated drinks.