When you have diarrhea, you can eat most simple, low-fat foods that are easy to digest: white rice, bananas, plain crackers, lean chicken or fish, and cooked vegetables. The goal is to choose foods that won’t irritate your gut further while giving your body the calories and nutrients it needs to recover. Most experts actually advise against heavy dietary restriction and recommend returning to your normal diet as soon as you feel ready.
Best Foods to Eat
Stick with bland, low-fiber, low-fat options. These move through your digestive system gently and are unlikely to trigger more cramping or loose stools. Good choices include:
- Starches: White rice, plain white bread, crackers, and pasta made with refined flour. Hot cereals like Cream of Wheat work well too.
- Fruits: Bananas, applesauce, canned fruit, and melons. These are gentle on the stomach and provide potassium, which you lose during diarrhea.
- Proteins: Lean chicken, turkey, whitefish, and shellfish that are steamed, baked, or grilled without added fat.
- Cooked vegetables: Carrots, green beans, and potatoes (peeled) are easier to digest than raw vegetables.
You may have heard of the BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast). While those foods are all fine choices, most nutrition experts no longer recommend limiting yourself strictly to those four items. That combination is too low in calories and nutrients to sustain you for more than a day or two, and there’s no strong evidence it speeds recovery compared to a broader bland diet.
Why Soluble Fiber Helps
Some foods contain soluble fiber, which retains water and turns into a gel during digestion. This slows things down in your intestine, giving your body more time to absorb nutrients and water. The result is firmer, bulkier stools. Oatmeal, bananas, applesauce, and peeled potatoes are all good sources of soluble fiber.
Insoluble fiber, on the other hand, does the opposite. It adds bulk but also speeds transit time. Raw vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and seeds are high in insoluble fiber and can make diarrhea worse. Save those for after you’ve recovered.
Foods and Drinks to Avoid
Certain foods actively pull water into your intestine or speed up digestion, which is the last thing you need. The main categories to skip:
Fatty and fried foods. When fat isn’t absorbed properly in the upper digestive tract, it reaches the colon and gets broken down into fatty acids. These trigger the colon to secrete fluid, making diarrhea worse. Skip fried foods, pizza, fast food, and creamy sauces until you’re feeling better.
Dairy. Milk, soft cheese, and ice cream contain lactose, which many people have trouble digesting even under normal circumstances. During a bout of diarrhea, your gut’s ability to process lactose drops further. The American College of Gastroenterology recommends avoiding dairy for at least 24 to 48 hours. Some people have difficulty with lactose for a month or more after an acute episode.
High-sugar foods and drinks. Sugars stimulate your gut to release water and electrolytes into the intestine, loosening stools. Fructose is a major offender. It shows up naturally in fruits like peaches, pears, cherries, and apples, and it’s added to sodas, juice beverages, candy, and packaged desserts. Consuming more than 40 to 80 grams of fructose per day can cause diarrhea on its own.
Sugar alcohols. Sorbitol, mannitol, and xylitol are found in sugar-free gum, candy, and some medications. Your body can’t fully absorb them, so they draw water into the intestine.
Caffeine. Coffee, tea, chocolate, and many soft drinks contain caffeine, which speeds up the digestive system and can worsen loose stools.
Spicy foods. Beyond the potential for high hidden fat content, heavily spiced foods can cause burning and irritation in the rectum, which is already under stress during frequent bowel movements.
Alcohol. Alcoholic beverages irritate the gut lining and promote dehydration, compounding both the cause and the consequences of diarrhea.
Hydration Matters More Than Food
Replacing lost fluids is the single most important thing you can do. Diarrhea pulls water and electrolytes out of your body quickly, and dehydration is the main risk, especially in children and older adults.
Plain water helps, but drinks containing both salt and sugar work better. The combination helps your intestine absorb fluids more efficiently than water alone. Oral rehydration solutions (available as packets, tablets, or premixed drinks at most pharmacies) are designed specifically for this purpose. Broth-based soups also provide fluid, salt, and a small amount of calories.
Avoid relying on fruit juice, soda, or sports drinks as your main fluid source. Their high sugar content can pull more water into the intestine and make things worse.
Probiotics May Shorten Recovery
Two specific probiotics have the most evidence behind them for diarrhea: Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (often labeled LGG) and Saccharomyces boulardii, a beneficial yeast. Clinical trials involving thousands of participants found that both reduced the duration of acute infectious diarrhea by roughly one day. The effective doses in studies were high, typically around 10 billion colony-forming units per day for 5 to 10 days.
These probiotics are available over the counter in capsule, powder, and chewable forms. They’re not a cure, but shaving a day off a miserable illness is meaningful. Look for products that list specific strain names on the label rather than generic “probiotic blend” claims.
When to Start Eating Normally Again
Sooner than you might think. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases states that in most cases, you can return to your normal diet as soon as you feel like eating again. There’s no benefit to prolonged fasting or staying on a restricted diet longer than necessary. Your body needs calories and nutrients to recover, and eating helps restore the normal function of your intestinal lining.
The practical approach: eat bland foods while your symptoms are at their worst, then gradually reintroduce your regular meals over a day or two. Add back dairy last, since temporary lactose intolerance after a diarrheal illness is common and can linger for weeks. If a food seems to trigger another round of loose stools, pull it back out and try again in a few days.
Children should continue their usual age-appropriate diet during diarrhea. Infants should keep breastfeeding or drinking formula. Restricting food intake in children offers no benefit and risks delaying recovery.