When you have diarrhea, the best foods are bland, soft, and easy to digest: think bananas, white rice, boiled potatoes, plain toast, scrambled eggs, and brothy soups. The old advice was to stick strictly to the BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast), but that’s now considered too restrictive. A wider range of gentle foods will keep your energy up and help your gut recover faster.
Why the BRAT Diet Isn’t Enough
For decades, the BRAT diet was the default recommendation for diarrhea. It’s bland, it’s binding, and it’s easy to remember. But it’s missing calcium, vitamin B12, protein, and fiber, all of which your body needs to heal. Following it for more than a day or two can actually slow recovery, especially in children. The American Academy of Pediatrics no longer recommends it as a strict protocol for kids because it’s too nutritionally limited.
The core idea behind BRAT still holds: eat soft, mild foods that won’t irritate your gut. You just don’t need to limit yourself to only four of them.
Best Foods to Eat During Diarrhea
Start with whatever you can tolerate, and build from there. These foods are gentle on the digestive system and unlikely to make things worse:
- White rice and plain noodles: Low in fiber and easy to digest, these are a reliable starting point.
- Bananas: Rich in potassium, which your body loses in large quantities during diarrhea. Low potassium can leave you feeling weak and fatigued.
- Boiled or baked potatoes (no skin): Another good source of potassium. Skip the butter and sour cream for now.
- Applesauce: Contains soluble fiber, which absorbs excess water in the gut and helps firm up stool.
- Plain toast or saltine crackers: Easy to keep down and gentle on the stomach.
- Brothy soups: Replace lost fluids and electrolytes while providing some calories.
- Oatmeal: A good source of soluble fiber that slows digestion and helps with stool consistency.
- Dry cereal: Plain varieties without added sugar work well as a light meal.
Adding Protein as You Improve
Once the worst has passed and your stomach starts settling, your body needs protein to recover. Stick to lean, well-cooked options prepared without added fat. Scrambled eggs, skinless chicken or turkey breast, white fish, soft tofu, and cottage cheese are all good choices. Smooth nut butters work for some people, though they’re higher in fat so go slowly.
Avoid anything fried, fatty, or heavily processed. Bacon, sausage, hot dogs, fried chicken, and fatty cuts of meat are harder to digest and can trigger another round of loose stools. The general rule: if it’s greasy, save it for later.
How Soluble Fiber Helps
Not all fiber is the same during a bout of diarrhea. Soluble fiber, the kind found in oats, bananas, applesauce, and boiled potatoes, turns into a gel during digestion. It absorbs extra water in the intestine and slows everything down, which helps stool form properly. This is the type of fiber you want right now.
Insoluble fiber, found in raw vegetables, whole grains, and fruit skins, does the opposite. It speeds things along and adds bulk in a way that can worsen diarrhea. Save the big salads and bran cereal for when you’re fully recovered.
Replacing Lost Minerals
Diarrhea flushes potassium, sodium, and other electrolytes out of your body quickly. If you don’t replace them, you’ll feel weak, dizzy, or lightheaded. Bananas and potatoes are two of the easiest potassium-rich foods to eat when your stomach is sensitive. Apricot or peach nectar, fish, and lean meat also help replenish stores once you can tolerate them.
Broth-based soups pull double duty here, replacing both fluids and sodium. Oral rehydration solutions (available at any pharmacy) are another option, especially if you’re struggling to eat much solid food.
Foods and Drinks to Avoid
Some foods actively make diarrhea worse by pulling water into the intestine or speeding up digestion. Steer clear of these until you’re back to normal:
- Dairy products: Milk, ice cream, and soft cheeses contain lactose, a sugar that many people have trouble digesting even under normal circumstances. During diarrhea, your gut’s ability to process lactose drops further. Plain yogurt and cottage cheese are sometimes tolerated because fermentation has broken down some of the lactose.
- Caffeine: Coffee, tea, energy drinks, and cola speed up the digestive system, pushing food through before your gut can absorb water from it.
- Sugar alcohols: Sorbitol, mannitol, and xylitol (common in sugar-free gum, candy, and some medications) are poorly absorbed and pull water into the bowel.
- High-sugar foods and drinks: Sugars stimulate the gut to release water and electrolytes, loosening stools further. Fruit juice, soda, and candy can all make things worse.
- Greasy or fried foods: Fat is harder to digest and can irritate an already sensitive gut.
- Raw vegetables and high-fiber grains: Too much insoluble fiber will speed things up when you need them to slow down.
- Alcohol: Dehydrating and irritating to the intestinal lining.
When to Return to Your Normal Diet
Most experts don’t recommend restricting your diet for long. In most cases, you can return to your normal eating pattern as soon as you feel up to it. There’s no required waiting period or mandatory progression from liquids to solids to a full diet. If a regular meal sounds appealing and stays down, go for it.
For children, the guidance is even more straightforward: continue their usual age-appropriate diet throughout the illness. Infants should keep breastfeeding or taking formula. Restricting a child’s diet beyond a day has been shown to delay recovery rather than help it. The priority is keeping calories and fluids coming in.
Probiotics and Gut Recovery
Probiotic foods like plain yogurt, kefir, and fermented vegetables may help your gut flora bounce back. Certain probiotic strains have shown measurable effects in clinical research. One well-studied strain reduced the proportion of children still experiencing diarrhea by nearly half compared to placebo, while another shortened the overall duration of symptoms significantly.
Probiotic supplements are widely available, but the benefits depend on the specific strain and dose. Not every probiotic product on the shelf has evidence behind it. If you want to try one, look for products that list specific strains on the label rather than just generic “probiotic blend” language. For a food-first approach, plain yogurt with live active cultures is a reasonable starting point once your stomach can handle it.