When your stomach is upset, the best foods are bland, low-fiber, and easy to break down: think white rice, bananas, plain toast, broth, and applesauce. These give your digestive system something to work with without forcing it to do heavy lifting. What you avoid matters just as much as what you eat, and staying hydrated is the single most important thing you can do while your stomach recovers.
Start With Fluids, Not Food
If you’re vomiting or have diarrhea, your body is losing water and electrolytes faster than usual. Replacing those fluids is more urgent than eating solid food. Small, frequent sips work better than gulping a full glass, which can trigger more nausea.
Water alone isn’t ideal because it doesn’t replace the sodium and potassium you’re losing. Oral rehydration solutions (sold at most pharmacies) are specifically designed for this. If you don’t have one handy, you can make a simple version at home: mix 12 ounces of unsweetened orange juice with 20 ounces of cooled boiled water and half a teaspoon of salt. The proportions matter, so measure carefully. Other good options include clear broth, diluted sports drinks, and herbal tea. Avoid coffee, alcohol, and sugary sodas, all of which can make things worse.
The Best Foods for a Sensitive Stomach
Once you can keep liquids down, you can start reintroducing simple foods. The goal is to eat things that are low in fat, low in fiber, and mild in flavor. Fat slows digestion, fiber adds bulk your irritated gut doesn’t want to process, and strong flavors or spices can trigger more nausea.
Foods that tend to sit well:
- Bananas: Gentle on the stomach and rich in potassium, which you lose during vomiting and diarrhea. Bananas also contain pectin, a type of soluble fiber that absorbs excess water in the intestines and helps firm up loose stools. A study in the journal Gastroenterology found that pectin significantly reduced stool volume and electrolyte loss in people with persistent diarrhea.
- White rice: Easier to digest than brown rice because the milling process removes most of the fiber. Harvard Health Publishing notes that white rice is a better choice during digestive flare-ups precisely because it’s lower in fiber, giving your gut less work to do.
- Plain toast or crackers: Dry, starchy foods absorb stomach acid and are unlikely to trigger nausea. Skip the butter or jam for now.
- Applesauce: Another source of pectin, and softer than raw apples, which can be harder to digest.
- Broth-based soups: Chicken or vegetable broth provides fluid, sodium, and a small amount of calories without overwhelming your stomach.
- Boiled or baked potatoes: Plain potatoes (no butter, cheese, or sour cream) are starchy and bland enough to tolerate well.
Why the BRAT Diet Isn’t the Final Answer
You’ve probably heard of the BRAT diet: bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast. It’s been the go-to recommendation for decades, and those foods are still fine choices in the first day or two. But the Cleveland Clinic and the American Academy of Pediatrics no longer recommend following it strictly, because it’s too nutritionally limited. It lacks adequate protein, calcium, vitamin B12, and fiber.
For children especially, sticking to BRAT foods for more than 24 hours can actually slow recovery by depriving the gut of the nutrients it needs to heal. The better approach is to start with those gentle foods and then gradually broaden your diet as your stomach allows, adding lean protein like plain chicken, eggs, or yogurt within a day or two.
Ginger for Nausea
Ginger is one of the few natural remedies with real clinical evidence behind it. It works by speeding up the rate at which food moves through your digestive tract and by acting on receptors in the gut and brain that trigger the urge to vomit. Clinical trials have used doses ranging from 250 mg to 1 gram per day, typically split into three or four smaller amounts. Interestingly, higher doses (around 2 grams) didn’t perform better than 1 gram, so more isn’t necessarily better.
The easiest ways to get ginger are through ginger tea (steep fresh slices in hot water), ginger chews, or ginger capsules. Ginger ale is less reliable because many commercial brands use artificial ginger flavoring and contain a lot of sugar, which can worsen diarrhea. If you’re giving ginger to a child under two, check with a pediatrician first, as safety data for that age group is limited.
Yogurt: The Dairy Exception
Most dairy products are worth avoiding when your stomach is upset. Here’s why: the lining of your small intestine produces the enzyme that breaks down lactose (the sugar in milk), and when that lining is inflamed or damaged from a stomach bug, it temporarily produces less of that enzyme. The result is that milk, cheese, and ice cream can cause bloating, gas, and more diarrhea than usual.
Yogurt with live active cultures is the exception. The bacteria in yogurt partially break down lactose during fermentation, making it easier to tolerate. Those same bacteria can also support your gut’s recovery. A large Cochrane review found that probiotics reduced the duration of diarrhea by about 30 hours on average and cut the risk of diarrhea lasting beyond three days by roughly a third. The strain with the strongest evidence was Lactobacillus GG, which is found in some yogurts and probiotic supplements. Look for “live and active cultures” on the label, and choose plain varieties over sweetened ones.
Foods and Drinks to Avoid
Some foods are reliably irritating to an already inflamed digestive system. While your stomach is recovering, skip these:
- Fatty or fried foods: Fat takes longer to digest and can increase nausea.
- Spicy foods: Can irritate the stomach lining and worsen pain.
- Raw vegetables and high-fiber foods: Harder to break down and can aggravate diarrhea.
- Caffeine: Stimulates the gut and can speed up diarrhea. It’s also a mild diuretic, which doesn’t help when you’re already dehydrated.
- Alcohol: Irritates the stomach lining and promotes dehydration.
- Sugary drinks and fruit juices at full strength: High sugar concentrations can pull water into the intestines and make diarrhea worse. If you drink juice, dilute it.
How to Ease Back Into Normal Eating
Most stomach upsets resolve within one to three days. During that window, let your appetite guide you. Eating small amounts every few hours is generally easier to tolerate than three full meals. As your nausea fades, gradually add back lean proteins (plain chicken, scrambled eggs), cooked vegetables, and whole grains. If a food makes you feel worse, pull back and try again the next day.
Pay attention to warning signs that suggest something more serious: blood in your stool (or black, tarry stools), vomiting that lasts more than 24 hours, fever alongside gut symptoms, diarrhea lasting more than a few days, or signs of dehydration like dark urine, dizziness, or a dry mouth. These warrant a call to your doctor rather than another bowl of rice.