When your stomach is upset, bland, easy-to-digest foods like rice, bananas, broth, and toast are your best options. The goal is to give your digestive system the least possible work while still getting calories and fluids in. What you eat in the first 24 to 48 hours matters, but so does what you avoid and how quickly you reintroduce normal meals.
Start With Liquids, Then Add Bland Foods
If you’ve been vomiting, hold off on solid food for about eight hours. During that window, take small sips of clear fluids: water, broth, or an oral rehydration solution. Drinking too much at once can trigger more vomiting, so aim for a few sips every 10 to 15 minutes rather than gulping down a full glass.
Once you can keep liquids down, start with the simplest solid foods. The classic BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast) has been a go-to recommendation for decades, and it works fine for a day or two. But there’s no research showing it’s better than other bland options. A broader list of gentle foods gives you more nutrition and makes recovery easier:
- Plain white rice or oatmeal
- Brothy soups (chicken broth, miso, clear vegetable soup)
- Boiled or baked potatoes (no butter or sour cream)
- Saltine crackers or unsweetened dry cereal
- Bananas
- Plain toast
- Applesauce
These foods share a few traits: they’re low in fat, low in fiber, and unlikely to irritate an already inflamed stomach lining. White rice is particularly helpful if you’re dealing with diarrhea. Research from Johns Hopkins found that rice-based rehydration solutions reduced stool output by 20 percent compared to standard glucose-based ones in the first eight hours, likely because the starch in rice absorbs water in the gut.
What to Add as You Start Feeling Better
You don’t need to live on crackers and toast for a week. Once your stomach has settled, usually after a day or two, start adding foods with more nutritional value. Your body needs protein and vitamins to recover, and sticking with a very restrictive diet too long can actually slow that process down.
Good next-step foods include cooked carrots, butternut or pumpkin squash, sweet potatoes without the skin, avocado, skinless chicken or turkey, fish, and eggs. These are all still bland and easy to digest, but they deliver the protein and micronutrients that plain rice and toast don’t. Add one or two new foods per meal so you can tell if something doesn’t sit well.
Drinks That Help (and Ones That Don’t)
Staying hydrated is the single most important thing when your stomach is upset, especially if you’re losing fluids through vomiting or diarrhea. Water is the obvious choice, but it doesn’t replace the electrolytes you’re losing. An oral rehydration solution, or even a mix of water with a pinch of salt and a small amount of sugar, does a better job of replacing what your body needs.
Ginger tea is worth trying if nausea is your main symptom. Ginger appears to reduce nausea by acting on serotonin receptors in both the gut and the brain. Most clinical studies have used between 250 mg and 1 gram of powdered ginger root per dose, which translates roughly to a teaspoon of freshly grated ginger steeped in hot water. Peppermint tea can also help if you’re dealing with stomach cramps or bloating, as peppermint acts as a natural muscle relaxant for the digestive tract.
Skip coffee, alcohol, and sugary drinks. Caffeine stimulates stomach acid production, which is the last thing you need when your stomach lining is irritated. Alcohol draws water into the gut, which can worsen diarrhea. Fruit juices and sodas are high in sugar, and that sugar pulls extra fluid into your intestines through osmotic pressure, making loose stools worse.
Foods That Will Make Things Worse
Some foods are genuinely hard on a stomach that’s already struggling. Knowing what to avoid is just as useful as knowing what to eat.
- Fried and greasy foods: Fat slows digestion and can cause the colon to produce more liquid, leading to watery stools.
- Dairy products: When your gut is inflamed, it may temporarily lose some of its ability to break down lactose. Undigested lactose pulls extra fluid into the large intestine, causing gas, bloating, and diarrhea.
- Spicy foods: Capsaicin irritates the stomach lining directly and can increase acid production.
- Raw vegetables and high-fiber foods: Fiber is normally healthy, but it requires significant digestive effort. Cooked vegetables are a better choice until you’re fully recovered.
- Citrus fruits: The acidity can aggravate an already sensitive stomach.
Probiotics Can Speed Recovery
If your upset stomach is caused by a stomach bug or food poisoning, probiotics may shorten how long you feel sick. When used alongside proper hydration, probiotics have been shown to reduce the duration of diarrhea by about 25 hours and cut the risk of symptoms lasting beyond four days by nearly 60 percent. Strains like Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG and Saccharomyces boulardii have the most research behind them, though the evidence suggests the specific strain matters less than simply getting some form of probiotic.
You can get probiotics from supplements or from fermented foods like plain yogurt (once you’re past the worst of it and can tolerate dairy again), kefir, or miso soup. Miso broth does double duty: it’s a warm, salty liquid that helps with hydration while delivering beneficial bacteria.
A Practical Recovery Timeline
Most stomach upsets from viral illness, food poisoning, or traveler’s diarrhea follow a predictable arc. The first 8 to 12 hours are typically the worst, and this is when you should focus on liquids only. From hours 8 through 24, introduce bland solids in small portions. By day two or three, you can begin expanding your diet with the more nutritious options listed above. Most people are back to eating normally within three to five days.
Eat small portions throughout the day rather than three large meals. A full stomach puts more demand on your digestive system, while smaller amounts are easier to process and less likely to trigger nausea. If a particular food causes discomfort, pull back and try again the next day.
Signs You Need More Than Food Choices
Dietary changes handle most mild stomach upsets, but dehydration can become dangerous. Watch for confusion, fainting, a rapid heartbeat, rapid breathing, or going many hours without urinating. These are signs that fluid loss has become serious and needs medical attention. Bloody stools, a fever above 102°F that lasts more than a day, or severe abdominal pain that doesn’t improve are also reasons to seek help rather than trying to manage things at home.