When your stomach is upset, the best foods to reach for are bland, low-fiber, and easy to digest: think plain white rice, bananas, toast, applesauce, crackers, and plain oatmeal. These foods are gentle enough to stay down and unlikely to trigger more nausea or diarrhea. But what you eat also depends on where you are in your illness and what type of stomach trouble you’re dealing with.
Start With Liquids, Then Ease Into Food
If you’ve been vomiting, don’t eat right away. Give your stomach a break for a few hours before putting anything in it. Start by sucking on ice chips or taking small sips of water every 15 minutes. Once you can keep water down, move on to other clear liquids: clear broth, watered-down electrolyte drinks, ice pops, or gelatin.
After you’ve held down liquids for a few hours, your appetite will likely start creeping back. That’s your signal to try small amounts of bland food: applesauce, bananas, crackers, plain oatmeal, or toast. Eat slowly and in small portions. If you’re still hungry, eat more frequently rather than loading up in one sitting. The goal is to test your stomach gently rather than overwhelm it.
The BRAT Diet: Helpful but Not Enough
You’ve probably heard of the BRAT diet: bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast. These four foods have been recommended for decades because they’re bland, low in fiber, and easy to digest. They also have some specific benefits. Bananas and applesauce both contain pectin, a soluble fiber that binds excess water and helps firm up loose stools. Bananas are also rich in potassium, a mineral your body loses quickly during diarrhea and vomiting. Plain white rice is high in starch that converts to soluble fiber in the gut, further helping to solidify stool.
That said, the strict BRAT diet is no longer the recommendation it once was. The American Academy of Pediatrics considers it too restrictive, noting that it lacks essential nutrients and may actually slow recovery if followed for more than 24 hours. The current guidance is simpler: eat bland foods as tolerated, and expand your diet as soon as you feel ready. Your body needs a range of nutrients to recover, and limiting yourself to just four foods won’t provide them.
Other Bland Foods That Work Well
You’re not limited to bananas and toast. Plenty of other foods are easy on a sensitive stomach, especially freshly cooked starches. The key is choosing foods that are soft, plain, and low in fat. Good options include:
- Freshly cooked hot potatoes (baked, boiled, or mashed, without butter or heavy toppings)
- Plain oatmeal or porridge
- Fresh pasta (served hot and plain, or with a very light broth)
- Rice cakes or plain crackers
- Puffed rice cereal or cornflakes
- Simple homemade broth-based soups
One detail worth knowing: freshly cooked starches are easier to digest than ones that have cooled down and been reheated. When starchy foods cool, some of their starch converts into a form that resists digestion, which can be harder on a recovering gut. So freshly made rice or potatoes are a better choice than leftovers from the fridge.
Ginger for Nausea
Ginger is one of the better-studied natural remedies for nausea, and the evidence is solid enough to be worth trying. Clinical trials have found it effective for pregnancy-related nausea, motion sickness, and nausea from chemotherapy. Most studies point to about 1 gram per day as an effective dose, which is roughly half a teaspoon of ground ginger or a thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger.
You can get this through ginger tea (steep fresh slices in hot water), ginger chews, or ginger ale that contains real ginger rather than just flavoring. The FDA considers up to 4 grams daily to be safe, though most people don’t need anywhere near that much. If nausea is your primary symptom, ginger is a practical, low-risk option to try alongside bland eating.
What to Avoid Until You Feel Better
Certain foods are far more likely to make things worse. While your stomach is recovering, steer clear of:
- Dairy products: Digestive illnesses can temporarily reduce your ability to break down lactose, making milk, cheese, and ice cream a recipe for more cramping and diarrhea.
- Fried and fatty foods: Fat slows digestion and can intensify nausea and bloating.
- Spicy foods: These can irritate an already inflamed stomach lining.
- Caffeine and alcohol: Both are dehydrating, and caffeine can stimulate gut contractions that worsen diarrhea.
- Acidic fruits: Oranges, grapefruits, and tomatoes can aggravate nausea and acid-related discomfort.
- Sugary foods and drinks: High sugar content can draw water into the intestines and make diarrhea worse.
The common thread is that your digestive system is temporarily weakened. Anything that requires significant effort to break down, or that stimulates acid and gut motility, is working against your recovery.
A Note on Peppermint
Peppermint tea is a popular home remedy for stomach discomfort, and there is evidence that peppermint oil can help with certain types of digestive pain, particularly the cramping and bloating associated with irritable bowel syndrome. A review of 10 studies found it reduced abdominal pain better than placebo.
However, peppermint relaxes the valve between your stomach and esophagus, which means it can worsen heartburn and acid reflux. If your upset stomach involves any burning sensation in your chest or throat, peppermint is likely to make it worse, not better. It’s best suited for cramping or bloating without an acid component.
Hydration Matters More Than Food
The biggest risk from an upset stomach, especially one involving vomiting or diarrhea, isn’t missed meals. It’s dehydration. You lose water, sodium, and potassium rapidly, and replacing those is more urgent than eating solid food. Electrolyte drinks (diluted if they’re very sweet), clear broth, and coconut water are all good choices. Plain water is fine too, but if you’ve had significant fluid loss, something with electrolytes will help you recover faster.
Small, frequent sips are better than gulping a full glass, particularly if nausea is still present. Your stomach can absorb small volumes more reliably than large ones when it’s irritated.
Feeding Kids With Upset Stomachs
Children follow the same general pattern of liquids first, then bland foods, then a return to normal eating. But there’s an important difference: kids are more vulnerable to both dehydration and nutritional gaps. Restricting a child to just a few bland foods for more than a day can lead to deficiencies in fiber, vitamins, and minerals. The current pediatric guidelines encourage returning to a normal, age-appropriate diet as quickly as the child can tolerate it, rather than keeping them on a restricted diet for days. If a child is keeping bland foods down, there’s no reason to wait before offering more variety.