When you’re sick, the right foods can shorten your recovery, ease nausea, and prevent dehydration, while the wrong ones can make everything worse. What helps most depends on whether you’re dealing with a stomach bug, a cold, or general nausea, but a few foods show up consistently as helpful across nearly all types of illness.
Fluids Come First
Dehydration is the biggest practical risk when you’re vomiting or running a fever, and replacing lost fluids matters more than eating solid food in the first hours of illness. Plain water works, but it doesn’t replace the sodium and potassium your body loses through sweat, vomiting, or diarrhea. That’s where oral rehydration solutions come in. The World Health Organization’s basic recipe is simple: half a teaspoon of salt and two tablespoons of sugar dissolved in about one liter of water. The sugar isn’t just for taste. It helps your intestines absorb sodium and water more efficiently.
If you don’t want to mix your own, store-bought electrolyte drinks work similarly. Avoid drinks that are heavily sweetened, though. Large amounts of juice, soda, or gelatin desserts can actually worsen diarrhea because the high sugar content pulls more water into your intestines. Sip slowly rather than gulping. If you’ve been vomiting, wait until you can keep small sips of liquid down for a few hours before trying anything solid.
Ginger for Nausea
Ginger is one of the most studied natural remedies for nausea, and it genuinely works. Two compounds in ginger, called gingerols and shogaols, have direct antiemetic effects, meaning they help suppress the urge to vomit. These compounds have been tested in contexts ranging from morning sickness to chemotherapy-related nausea.
You don’t need a supplement to benefit. Ginger tea made from fresh sliced ginger, flat ginger ale (though most commercial brands contain very little real ginger), or even candied ginger can help settle your stomach. The key is using real ginger rather than ginger-flavored products. If nausea is your main symptom, try sipping ginger tea before attempting solid food.
Chicken Soup Does More Than Comfort
Chicken soup’s reputation as a cold remedy has actual science behind it. A study published in the journal CHEST found that chicken soup significantly inhibited the movement of white blood cells called neutrophils, which are part of the inflammatory response that causes many cold symptoms like congestion, sore throat, and mucus production. The effect was concentration-dependent, meaning stronger soup had a stronger effect. Both the chicken and the vegetables in the soup individually showed anti-inflammatory activity.
Beyond the anti-inflammatory effect, chicken soup delivers fluid, sodium, and easy-to-digest protein in one package. The warm steam also helps loosen congestion. This makes it one of the most useful foods whether you’re dealing with a cold, the flu, or recovering from a stomach illness and ready to start eating again.
Honey for Coughs
If your sickness involves a persistent cough, honey is worth reaching for. A Cochrane review of clinical trials found that honey performed about as well as dextromethorphan, the active ingredient in most over-the-counter cough suppressants, at reducing cough frequency in children. Taking honey for up to three days was more effective than placebo at relieving cough symptoms overall.
A spoonful of honey straight, or stirred into warm water or tea, coats the throat and can calm irritation. One important note: honey should never be given to children under one year old due to the risk of botulism.
Peppermint for Stomach Cramps
Peppermint relaxes the smooth muscle lining your digestive tract by reducing calcium flow into muscle cells. This is the same basic mechanism used by some prescription antispasmodic medications, which is why peppermint tea can genuinely ease stomach cramps, bloating, and that tight, churning feeling in your gut. If nausea is your primary issue, though, ginger tends to be more effective. Peppermint is better suited for cramping and indigestion once the worst of the vomiting has passed.
What to Eat as You Recover
You may have heard of the BRAT diet: bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast. It’s been a go-to recommendation for decades, but the CDC’s clinical guidelines now call it “unnecessarily restrictive,” noting that it provides suboptimal nutrition for a recovering gut. Sticking to only those four foods for more than a day can delay recovery and, in severe cases, contribute to malnutrition.
A better approach is to start with small portions of bland, easy-to-digest foods and expand your diet as your stomach tolerates it. Good options include plain crackers, broth-based soups, boiled potatoes, cooked carrots, eggs, and plain oatmeal. The goal is to resume your normal diet relatively quickly. Research shows that early feeding after gastroenteritis actually reduces illness duration and improves nutritional outcomes compared to prolonged fasting. Withholding food for more than 24 hours is no longer recommended.
Bananas and potatoes are still smart choices, not because they’re bland, but because they’re rich in potassium, which you lose rapidly during vomiting and diarrhea.
Zinc and Vitamin C During a Cold
If you’re fighting a cold rather than a stomach illness, zinc lozenges can meaningfully shorten how long you’re sick. A meta-analysis of randomized trials found that zinc lozenges shortened cold duration by about 33% when they provided more than 75 milligrams of elemental zinc per day. That could mean recovering in four days instead of six. The lozenges need to dissolve slowly in your mouth to work, since the zinc acts locally in the throat and nasal passages.
Vitamin C gets more attention but has a smaller effect. It doesn’t prevent colds for most people, though regular supplementation may slightly reduce how long symptoms last. You’ll get vitamin C naturally from citrus fruits, strawberries, bell peppers, and tomatoes, all of which are fine to eat when you’re sick with a respiratory illness (though acidic foods may irritate an already-upset stomach).
Probiotics for Gut Recovery
After a bout of diarrhea or a stomach bug, your gut bacteria take a hit. Certain probiotic strains can help restore balance and shorten the duration of infectious diarrhea in children and adults. The most studied strains for this purpose include Lactobacillus GG, Lactobacillus reuteri, and Saccharomyces boulardii (a beneficial yeast). You can find these in fermented foods like yogurt with live cultures, kefir, and miso, or in targeted probiotic supplements. Yogurt in particular does double duty: it provides protein, fluid, and probiotics, and many people who struggle with dairy during illness tolerate yogurt well because the fermentation process breaks down some of the lactose.
Foods That Make Sickness Worse
Some foods are worth avoiding entirely until you’re feeling better. Fatty, greasy, and fried foods slow down gastric emptying, meaning they sit in your stomach longer and can intensify nausea. Very sweet foods like candy, frosted baked goods, and sugary cereals can worsen diarrhea by drawing water into the intestines. Spicy foods irritate an already-inflamed digestive lining. And foods with strong odors can trigger nausea even before you take a bite, since your sense of smell becomes more sensitive when you’re ill.
Dairy (other than yogurt) is a common trigger for worsened symptoms during stomach illness, as your ability to digest lactose temporarily decreases when your intestinal lining is inflamed. Alcohol and caffeine both promote fluid loss and are best avoided until you’ve fully recovered.