A few simple foods can calm nausea, cramping, and general stomach upset surprisingly fast. Ginger, plain broth, bananas, rice, and toast are among the most reliable options, but you have more choices than you might think. The key is choosing foods that are easy to digest, replace lost fluids, and won’t irritate an already sensitive stomach.
Ginger: The Strongest Natural Option
Ginger is one of the best-studied remedies for nausea and stomach upset. Its active compounds, called gingerols and shogaols, work directly on the digestive tract to reduce queasiness. Most clinical studies use a daily dose of about 1,000 mg of ginger, roughly half a teaspoon of fresh grated ginger or a thumb-sized piece steeped in hot water. You don’t need a supplement to get there.
Ginger tea is the easiest route. Slice or grate fresh ginger into a mug of hot water, let it steep for five to ten minutes, and sip slowly. Ginger chews and crystallized ginger work too. Ginger ale is less reliable because most commercial brands contain very little actual ginger and a lot of sugar and carbonation, both of which can make things worse.
Broth and Clear Soups
When your stomach is upset, especially if you’ve been vomiting or dealing with diarrhea, dehydration is a real concern. Plain chicken or vegetable broth replaces fluids along with sodium, potassium, and phosphorus. Even a lightly salted broth helps your body absorb water more efficiently than plain water alone. Sip it warm rather than gulping it. Small, frequent amounts are easier on a sensitive stomach than drinking a full bowl at once.
The BRAT Diet and Beyond
You’ve probably heard of the BRAT diet: bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast. These foods are bland, low in fiber, and easy to digest, which is why they’ve been recommended for decades. Following a strict BRAT diet for a day or two is fine when you’re dealing with stomach flu, food poisoning, or traveler’s diarrhea. But there’s no need to limit yourself to only those four foods, and no studies have actually compared the BRAT diet to other approaches.
Harvard Health recommends expanding beyond BRAT to include brothy soups, oatmeal, boiled potatoes, crackers, and unsweetened dry cereal. Once your stomach starts to settle, you can add more nutritious options like cooked squash, carrots, sweet potatoes without skin, avocado, skinless chicken or turkey, fish, and eggs. These are still bland and gentle but provide the protein and nutrients your body needs to recover, which the classic BRAT foods largely lack.
Why Bananas and Applesauce Work
Bananas deserve a special mention because they’re rich in potassium, a mineral you lose quickly through vomiting or diarrhea. They’re also soft and naturally low in acid. Applesauce contains pectin, a type of soluble fiber that slows gastric emptying and helps firm up loose stools. Pectin also acts as a prebiotic, feeding beneficial bacteria in your colon that produce compounds supporting gut health and the intestinal lining. Stick with unsweetened applesauce, since added sugar can pull water into the intestines and worsen diarrhea.
Chamomile and Peppermint Tea
If cramping or gas is the main issue, chamomile tea is a solid choice. Chamomile contains flavonoids like apigenin and luteolin with anti-inflammatory properties, and it has a long traditional use for soothing stomach spasms, reducing gas, and relaxing the muscles that move food through your intestines. A warm cup after a meal or during a flare-up of indigestion can take the edge off.
Peppermint tea works through a different mechanism. The menthol in peppermint relaxes smooth muscle in the digestive tract by blocking calcium channels that trigger contractions. This makes it particularly helpful for bloating, cramping, and that tight, uncomfortable feeling in your gut. One caveat: peppermint can relax the valve between your stomach and esophagus, so if your stomach trouble involves acid reflux or heartburn, chamomile is the better option.
What to Avoid Until You Feel Better
What you don’t eat matters as much as what you do. Fatty and fried foods linger in the stomach longer than other foods, making it more likely that acid backs up and symptoms worsen. Dairy can be difficult to digest when your gut is already irritated, particularly if inflammation has temporarily reduced your ability to break down lactose. Caffeine, chocolate, carbonated drinks, and alcohol all tend to aggravate heartburn and nausea.
Spicy food, citrus, and tomato-based sauces are common irritants too. Stick with bland, simply prepared foods until your stomach has had at least a full day without symptoms before reintroducing anything rich or acidic.
Apple Cider Vinegar: Skip It
Apple cider vinegar is widely recommended online for heartburn and indigestion, but there is no published research in medical journals supporting its use for stomach upset. It’s acidic enough to irritate an already inflamed stomach lining and can damage tooth enamel over time. This is one home remedy that’s better left on the salad.
Probiotics for Recovery
If your stomach trouble came from a bout of food poisoning or a stomach bug, probiotics may help shorten recovery. The strain Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG has the most evidence behind it for acute infectious diarrhea. A meta-analysis of studies in children with rotavirus found that this strain reduced the duration of diarrhea by about two days compared to placebo. You can find it in certain yogurts (if you can tolerate dairy at that point) or in capsule form. Probiotics won’t do much for a one-time bout of indigestion, but they’re worth considering if you’ve been sick for more than a day or two.
A Simple Plan for the First 24 Hours
Start with just fluids: warm broth, ginger tea, or small sips of water with a pinch of salt. If that stays down for an hour or two, try a few bites of plain toast, a few spoonfuls of rice, or half a banana. Eat small amounts every two to three hours rather than full meals. As you improve, add boiled potatoes, oatmeal, or plain crackers. By the second day, if nausea has passed, you can introduce lean protein like chicken or eggs.
The goal is not to eat as little as possible. It’s to give your digestive system easy work while still providing calories and electrolytes. Starving yourself through a stomach bug won’t speed recovery and can leave you feeling weaker.
Signs of Something More Serious
Most stomach upset resolves within a day or two with rest and gentle eating. But certain symptoms point to something that food alone won’t fix. Sudden, severe abdominal pain, especially pain that feels out of proportion to anything you’ve experienced before, needs prompt medical evaluation. The same goes for a fever combined with abdominal pain, signs of dehydration like dark urine or dizziness when standing, vomiting blood or material that looks like coffee grounds, or abdominal pain that hasn’t improved after seven days. Rebound tenderness, where your abdomen hurts more when you release pressure than when you press down, is a sign of possible peritonitis and warrants emergency care.