The best foods for diarrhea are bland, low-fiber options that slow digestion and help firm up stool. White rice, bananas, applesauce, toast, broth-based soups, boiled potatoes, and eggs are all reliable choices. But you don’t need to limit yourself to just a handful of foods. A wider range of gentle, well-cooked options will help you recover faster by replacing the nutrients and fluids your body is losing.
Why Bland, Low-Fiber Foods Help
When your gut is irritated, reducing the amount of roughage passing through it gives your intestines a chance to calm down. Low-fiber foods limit bowel movements and can ease cramping. The goal is to eat things your body can digest with minimal effort: white rice, refined bread, saltine crackers, well-cooked carrots, canned green beans, and skinless potatoes. Cooking methods matter too. Steaming, simmering, poaching, and stewing all break food down so your digestive system doesn’t have to work as hard.
The BRAT Diet: Helpful but Too Narrow
You’ve probably heard of the BRAT diet: bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast. It works fine for the first day or two, but there’s no clinical evidence that restricting yourself to just those four foods produces better outcomes than a broader bland diet. The bigger concern is nutrition. Bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast don’t provide much protein, fat, or variety of vitamins, and your body needs those things to recover.
Once your stomach starts to settle, add foods like skinless chicken or turkey, fish, eggs, cooked sweet potatoes, butternut squash, avocado, and oatmeal. These are all easy to digest but provide the protein and nutrients that BRAT alone lacks.
Soluble Fiber Firms Up Loose Stool
Not all fiber is bad during diarrhea. Soluble fiber dissolves in water and forms a gel-like material in your stomach, which slows digestion and absorbs excess water in the intestines. This is the opposite of insoluble fiber (found in raw vegetables, whole grains, and seeds), which speeds things along and can make diarrhea worse.
Good sources of soluble fiber include oats, bananas, applesauce, cooked carrots, and barley. Applesauce deserves special mention because it’s rich in pectin, a type of soluble fiber that acts as a natural thickener. In the colon, pectin forms a water-holding gel that helps produce more normal stool. This is one reason applesauce has been a go-to diarrhea food for decades.
Replacing Lost Fluids and Electrolytes
Diarrhea pulls water and minerals out of your body quickly. Potassium and sodium are the two electrolytes you lose the most, and letting them drop too low can cause fatigue, muscle weakness, and dizziness. Aim for at least eight glasses of fluid per day, and make some of those fluids count double by choosing options that contain electrolytes.
For potassium, reach for bananas, boiled potatoes, coconut water, and lactose-free yogurt. For sodium, broth-based soups, crackers, and pretzels all help. Diluted fruit juices and oral rehydration drinks are useful when plain water isn’t cutting it. Sipping fluids steadily throughout the day is more effective than drinking large amounts at once, which can trigger another round of cramping.
Probiotic Foods May Shorten Recovery
Fermented foods introduce beneficial bacteria into your gut, which can help crowd out whatever is causing the problem. Yogurt is the most accessible option, particularly varieties that list live active cultures on the label. The bacterial strains most studied for diarrhea include Lactobacillus and Saccharomyces boulardii, a beneficial yeast. A Cochrane review of clinical trials found consistent evidence that probiotics reduce the duration of infectious diarrhea.
If you tolerate dairy, plain yogurt with live cultures is a good starting point. Kefir is another option. If dairy bothers you during the episode (more on that below), probiotic supplements are an alternative, though whole foods provide additional calories and nutrients your body can use.
Dairy: Proceed with Caution
An intestinal infection can temporarily damage the lining of your small intestine, reducing your ability to digest lactose, the sugar in milk. This is called secondary lactose intolerance, and it’s common even in people who normally handle dairy fine. The result is that drinking milk or eating ice cream during a bout of diarrhea can make symptoms noticeably worse.
This usually resolves within three to four weeks as the intestinal lining heals. In the meantime, you may tolerate yogurt better than milk because the fermentation process breaks down some of the lactose. Aged cheeses like cheddar and Swiss are also lower in lactose. If dairy seems to trigger more cramping or loose stool, switch to lactose-free versions or skip it until you’ve recovered.
Foods and Drinks That Make Diarrhea Worse
Some foods actively pull water into your intestines, which is the last thing you need. The biggest culprits:
- Sugary drinks and high-fructose foods. Sugar stimulates the gut to release water and electrolytes into the bowel. Fructose is especially problematic. People who consume more than 40 to 80 grams of fructose per day commonly develop diarrhea. Soda, juice beverages, and sweetened applesauce (as opposed to unsweetened) can all backfire.
- Artificial sweeteners. Sorbitol, mannitol, and xylitol, found in sugar-free gum, candy, and some medications, are poorly absorbed and draw water into the intestines. Check labels if you’re chewing gum or sucking on candy to settle your stomach.
- Caffeine. Coffee, tea, chocolate, and many sodas speed up the digestive system, pushing food through faster than your colon can absorb water from it.
- Greasy or fried foods. High-fat foods are harder to digest and can trigger cramping in an already irritated gut.
- Raw vegetables and whole grains. Insoluble fiber adds bulk and speeds transit time, which worsens loose stool. Save the salads and bran cereal for after you’ve recovered.
- Alcohol. It irritates the gut lining and has a dehydrating effect, compounding fluid losses you’re already dealing with.
A Practical Eating Plan
For the first day or two, stick to the gentlest options: white rice, plain toast, bananas, broth, applesauce, and crackers. Eat small amounts frequently rather than large meals. As symptoms improve, gradually add protein sources like eggs, skinless poultry, and fish, along with well-cooked vegetables like carrots, squash, and potatoes without skin. Oatmeal is a good breakfast choice because it provides soluble fiber and calories without being harsh on your stomach.
Most episodes of acute diarrhea resolve within two to three days with this approach. If you’re still dealing with frequent loose stools after a week, or if you notice blood, fever above 102°F, or signs of dehydration like dark urine and dizziness, that warrants medical attention rather than continued dietary management alone.