When your stomach is upset, the best things to eat are simple, low-fat, low-fiber foods that won’t make your digestive system work harder than it needs to. Think plain white rice, bananas, broth-based soups, eggs, crackers, and well-cooked vegetables without skins. The old advice to stick strictly to the BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast) is outdated. Those four foods are fine as a starting point, but they lack protein, calcium, vitamin B12, and fiber, so you shouldn’t limit yourself to just those items for more than a day.
Good Foods to Start With
The goal is choosing foods that are easy to break down and unlikely to irritate your stomach lining. Low-fat and low-fiber foods move through your digestive tract with less effort, which means less cramping and bloating. Here’s what works well:
- Grains and starches: White rice, plain white toast, crackers, pretzels, cream of wheat, pasta, and noodles. Stick with refined grains rather than whole wheat, since the extra fiber can slow digestion and cause discomfort.
- Fruits: Ripe bananas, applesauce, canned peaches or pears (without skins), and seedless melon. Avoid raw fruits with tough skins or seeds.
- Proteins: Scrambled or boiled eggs, skinless chicken or turkey, lean fish, and low-fat cottage cheese. These give your body what it needs to recover without the fat that makes digestion harder.
- Vegetables: Well-cooked carrots, potatoes, spinach, peeled squash, and beets. Cook them until they’re soft and easy to mash. Skip raw veggies and anything with skins still on.
- Soups: Broth-based soups, especially chicken broth or vegetable broth. These are gentle on the stomach and help with hydration at the same time.
You don’t need to follow a rigid food list. Once your appetite starts coming back, you can generally return to your normal diet, even if you still have some diarrhea. The key is listening to your body and adding foods back gradually rather than jumping straight to a heavy meal.
Why the BRAT Diet Isn’t Enough
For decades, the BRAT diet was the standard recommendation for stomach bugs and digestive upset. It’s not harmful for a day or two when you’re at your sickest, but it’s no longer considered the best approach. The American Academy of Pediatrics specifically advises against it for children because it’s too restrictive and may actually slow recovery. For kids, sticking to the BRAT diet for more than 24 hours can delay healing in the digestive tract.
The problem is simple: bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast don’t provide enough nutrition to help your body repair itself. Your gut needs protein to rebuild tissue and a broader range of vitamins to support your immune response. Use BRAT foods as part of your recovery diet, not the whole thing.
Fluids Matter More Than Food
Staying hydrated is more important than eating when you have an upset stomach, especially if you’re dealing with vomiting or diarrhea. Both drain your body of water and electrolytes (the salts and minerals that keep your muscles and organs functioning). Plain water helps, but it doesn’t replace the sodium and potassium you’re losing.
Oral rehydration solutions, available at most pharmacies and grocery stores, are designed to replace electrolytes at ratios that help your gut absorb fluid efficiently. Sports drinks like Gatorade work too, though they contain more sugar than the ideal formula. You can also sip on clear broth, which provides both fluid and sodium. Take small, frequent sips rather than gulping large amounts, especially if nausea is still an issue.
Ginger and Peppermint for Nausea
Ginger has real anti-nausea effects, not just folk wisdom. Compounds in ginger root block serotonin receptors in the gut, which are part of the signaling chain that triggers the vomiting reflex. This is the same pathway that many prescription anti-nausea medications target. Ginger tea, ginger chews, or even flat ginger ale (let the carbonation dissipate first) can help settle nausea.
Peppermint works differently. It relaxes the smooth muscle in your digestive tract by blocking calcium channels in the muscle cells, which reduces cramping and spasms. Peppermint tea is a simple option. If your main symptom is nausea, reach for ginger. If it’s more cramping and bloating, peppermint is the better choice.
Foods and Drinks to Avoid
Some foods actively make an upset stomach worse. Knowing what to skip is just as useful as knowing what to eat.
Fatty and fried foods slow down digestion, keeping food in your stomach longer. This can leave you feeling uncomfortably full and increase pressure on the valve between your stomach and esophagus, triggering heartburn on top of everything else.
Dairy can be tricky even if you’re not normally lactose intolerant. When your gut is inflamed, it may temporarily produce less of the enzyme that breaks down milk sugar, making dairy harder to digest. Milk also stimulates acid production, which can worsen an already irritated stomach. Low-fat yogurt is generally better tolerated than milk, especially if it contains live cultures.
Caffeine from coffee, tea, or energy drinks speeds up movement through your digestive tract, which can cause cramping, bloating, and worsen diarrhea. It’s also a diuretic, meaning it promotes fluid loss at a time when you’re already at risk for dehydration.
Spicy foods, alcohol, and carbonated drinks all irritate the stomach lining and should be avoided until you’re feeling fully recovered.
How to Reintroduce Normal Foods
There’s no strict hour-by-hour timeline you need to follow. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases recommends simply returning to your normal diet once your appetite comes back. For most people with a stomach virus, that means a day or two of lighter eating before things feel normal again.
A practical approach: start with fluids and broth during the worst of it, add bland solids like rice, toast, and bananas as you start feeling better, then bring back lean proteins and cooked vegetables within a day or so. Save the heavier, fattier, and spicier foods for last. If something you eat causes a flare-up of symptoms, back off and try again later.
Signs That Need Medical Attention
Most stomach upset resolves on its own within a few days. But certain symptoms signal something more serious: blood in your stool, persistent vomiting that prevents you from keeping any fluids down, fever alongside gut symptoms, worsening abdominal pain, or symptoms that last longer than a few weeks. Sudden, unexplained weight loss or signs of significant dehydration (dizziness, dark urine, no tears when crying in children) also warrant a call to your doctor.