The best foods to eat during diarrhea are bland, low-fat options that provide calories and replace lost nutrients without irritating your gut. Ripe bananas, plain white rice, cooked potatoes, lean chicken, and broth are all solid starting points. But the goal isn’t to restrict your diet to just a few items. It’s to eat a balanced range of gentle foods that help your body recover faster.
Why the BRAT Diet Isn’t Enough
You’ve probably heard of the BRAT diet: bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast. It’s been recommended for decades, but medical organizations including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the CDC no longer endorse it as a standalone approach. The problem is nutritional. The BRAT diet provides roughly 300 fewer calories per day than a normal diet for a toddler, and it’s extremely low in fat, protein, and key nutrients like vitamin A, B12, and calcium. Sticking to it for more than a day or two can actually slow your recovery.
The current guidance is simpler: eat a normal, balanced diet as soon as you’re able to keep food down, just choose gentler versions of what you’d normally eat. Early feeding plays a major role in repairing the gut lining and shortening the duration of illness. Starving yourself or limiting intake to four bland foods works against that process.
Foods That Help Firm Up Stool
Soluble fiber absorbs water in the gut and adds bulk to loose stool. Foods rich in soluble fiber and a compound called pectin are particularly helpful. Pectin works by forming a gel-like substance in the digestive tract, binding with calcium ions to hold water and create more formed stool. That gel also stimulates normal contractions in the colon, helping things move at a healthier pace.
Good sources of soluble fiber and pectin include:
- Ripe bananas (unripe green bananas are even more effective, used clinically in some countries)
- Applesauce or peeled cooked apples
- White rice and oatmeal
- Cooked carrots
- Peeled potatoes (baked or boiled, not fried)
- White toast or plain crackers
These foods are easy to digest and unlikely to worsen symptoms. Cook vegetables until soft rather than eating them raw, since raw produce contains more insoluble fiber, which can speed up the gut and make diarrhea worse.
Lean Proteins for Recovery
Your body needs protein to repair the intestinal lining, so don’t skip it. The key is choosing low-fat options and preparing them simply. Baked or steamed chicken and turkey (skin removed), plain baked fish, scrambled or boiled eggs, tofu, and smooth nut butters like peanut or almond butter are all well tolerated. Avoid frying, heavy sauces, or strong seasonings until your symptoms settle.
Replacing Lost Fluids and Potassium
Diarrhea pulls water and electrolytes out of your body quickly. Potassium is one of the biggest losses, and running low on it makes you feel weak and fatigued on top of everything else. Ripe bananas, potatoes, plain fish, and meat are all good potassium sources that are gentle enough for a sensitive stomach. Apricot or peach nectar can also help if you’re struggling to eat solid food.
For fluids, sip water, clear broth, or an oral rehydration solution throughout the day rather than drinking large amounts at once. Broth has the added benefit of replacing sodium. If you’re urinating very little, feeling confused, experiencing a rapid heartbeat, or close to fainting, those are signs of severe dehydration that need immediate medical attention.
Probiotics Can Shorten Recovery
Probiotic-rich foods may help you recover faster. A large Cochrane review of clinical trials found that probiotics reduced the average duration of diarrhea by about 30 hours and cut the risk of diarrhea lasting three or more days by roughly a third. Certain strains appear more effective than others, with one well-studied strain (found in many commercial yogurts and supplements) showing particular benefit for viral diarrhea in children, reducing stool frequency on day three from an average of two episodes to less than one.
Practical food sources include plain yogurt with live active cultures (if you tolerate dairy), kefir, and fermented foods like miso. If dairy is a trigger for you, a probiotic supplement or dairy-free fermented option is a better choice.
Foods and Drinks to Avoid
Some foods actively make diarrhea worse by drawing extra water into the intestines or stimulating the colon to secrete fluid. Cutting these out while you’re symptomatic can make a noticeable difference.
- Fried and fatty foods: When fat isn’t absorbed properly in the upper digestive tract, it reaches the colon and gets broken down into fatty acids. These trigger the colon to release fluid, worsening diarrhea.
- Dairy products: Milk, soft cheese, and ice cream contain lactose, which many people have difficulty digesting even under normal circumstances. During a bout of diarrhea, lactose intolerance can temporarily worsen because the enzyme that breaks it down gets depleted from the damaged gut lining.
- Sugar alcohols: Sorbitol, mannitol, and xylitol are found in sugar-free gum, candy, and some medications. They’re poorly absorbed and pull water into the intestines.
- Caffeine and alcohol: Both stimulate the gut and increase fluid loss.
- Raw vegetables and high-fiber grains: Whole wheat bread, raw salads, beans, and cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and cabbage can increase gas and speed up digestion.
- Spicy foods: Capsaicin irritates the gut lining and can accelerate transit time.
A Sample Day of Eating
Putting this together doesn’t require complicated meal planning. A typical day might look like scrambled eggs with white toast for breakfast, chicken and rice soup for lunch, a ripe banana as a snack, and baked fish with mashed potatoes for dinner. Sip broth or water between meals. As your symptoms improve over one to three days, gradually reintroduce your normal foods, starting with cooked vegetables and working back toward raw produce, whole grains, and dairy.
If diarrhea persists beyond three days, contains blood, or comes with a fever above 102°F, something beyond diet is likely going on and needs evaluation.