When you’re nauseous, bland, low-fat foods at cool or room temperature are your best options. Crackers, plain toast, broth, bananas, and boiled potatoes all sit well in an unsettled stomach. How you eat matters almost as much as what you eat: small portions, eaten slowly, with liquids separated from meals by 30 to 60 minutes.
Best Foods When You Feel Nauseous
The classic BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast) has been a go-to recommendation for decades, and those four foods are still fine choices. But there’s no clinical evidence that you need to limit yourself to just those items. Brothy soups, oatmeal, boiled potatoes, plain crackers, unsweetened dry cereal, plain yogurt, sherbet, and gelatin are all equally easy to digest.
Sour foods can also cut through nausea in a way that surprises most people. Sucking on a lemon wedge, nibbling on a pickle, or having a piece of sour candy can settle your stomach when bland foods don’t appeal to you. Hard candies with pleasant scents, like lemon drops or mints, serve double duty by masking any bad tastes in your mouth that make nausea worse.
Once your stomach starts to settle, you can expand to more nutritious options: cooked carrots, sweet potatoes without the skin, cooked squash like butternut or pumpkin, avocado, skinless chicken or turkey, fish, and eggs. These are still bland and easy to digest but give your body the protein and nutrients it needs to recover, especially if you’ve been vomiting.
Why Cold and Room-Temperature Foods Work Better
Hot food releases more aromatic compounds into the air. When you’re nauseous, those smells can push you over the edge before you even take a bite. Eating food that’s cool or at room temperature dramatically reduces the smell, making it easier to tolerate. Cold, clear liquids like chilled broth, ginger ale, and apple juice tend to be the easiest on your stomach.
If someone is cooking near you, move to a room with fresh air. Even non-food smells like flowers or perfume can trigger nausea when your stomach is already sensitive. Popsicles and frozen fruit bars are particularly good options because they combine hydration with cold temperature and go down slowly.
How to Eat: Timing and Portions
Eating a normal-sized meal when you’re nauseous almost always backfires. Small portions of low-fat food, spread across the day, keep your stomach from being overwhelmed. If you’re eating less at each sitting, aim to eat more frequently so you still get enough calories.
A few specific strategies make a real difference:
- Separate food and drinks. Avoid liquids at mealtimes. Drink 30 to 60 minutes before or after eating instead.
- Eat slowly. Rushing a meal fills the stomach faster than it can process, which worsens nausea.
- Stay upright. Don’t lie flat for at least two hours after eating. Gravity helps keep food moving in the right direction.
Ginger: The Best-Studied Natural Remedy
Ginger has more clinical research behind it than any other natural nausea remedy. The active compound in ginger root directly affects the digestive tract and helps calm the signals that trigger the urge to vomit. Most clinical studies have used 250 mg to 1 gram of powdered ginger root in capsule form, taken one to four times daily.
You don’t need capsules, though. Ginger tea, ginger chews, and even flat ginger ale (the carbonation itself can irritate a sensitive stomach) can help. For pregnancy-related nausea specifically, research has typically used 250 mg of ginger four times a day. If you’re pregnant, it’s worth knowing that the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology also recommends 10 to 25 mg of vitamin B6 three to four times daily for morning sickness. Combined with an antihistamine, this approach has been associated with a 70 percent reduction in nausea and vomiting during pregnancy.
Foods That Make Nausea Worse
Fat is the biggest culprit. It naturally slows the rate at which your stomach empties, meaning food sits there longer and keeps triggering nausea. Fried foods, greasy meals, rich sauces, and full-fat dairy are all worth avoiding until you feel better. Look for items labeled low-fat or nonfat when you’re choosing packaged foods.
High-fiber foods are another category to skip temporarily. Raw vegetables, raw fruits with skins, dried fruits, beans, and lentils all slow digestion and can sit in your stomach uncomfortably. Dense, heavy starches like bagels, thick pizza crust, and pasta shapes like gnocchi or tortellini can also be hard to process. Alcohol slows gastric emptying too and should be avoided entirely.
Spicy food, strong-smelling cheeses, and heavily seasoned dishes are obvious triggers, but fibrous cuts of meat like steak, roasts, and chops can also be surprisingly hard on a nauseous stomach. Stick with tender proteins like eggs, fish, or skinless poultry if you’re ready for protein.
Staying Hydrated Without Triggering Vomiting
Dehydration is the main risk when nausea leads to vomiting, and it can create a vicious cycle because dehydration itself causes nausea. The key is sipping liquids slowly throughout the day rather than drinking large amounts at once. Cold, clear liquids are easiest to keep down: water, diluted apple juice, broth, and oral rehydration solutions.
Commercial sports drinks can help replace lost electrolytes, but dilute them with equal parts water. Full-strength sports drinks contain enough sugar to worsen diarrhea if that’s part of what you’re dealing with. For children over one year old, diluted apple juice or half-strength sports drinks are reasonable options alongside oral rehydration solutions. For infants, stick with breast milk, formula, or a pediatric rehydration solution, and avoid plain water.
Warning Signs That Need Medical Attention
Most nausea passes within a day or two with dietary changes alone. But certain symptoms alongside nausea signal something more serious. Vomit that contains blood, looks like coffee grounds, or is green needs urgent evaluation. So does nausea paired with chest pain, severe abdominal cramping, a high fever with a stiff neck, confusion, or blurred vision.
Signs of dehydration also warrant a trip to urgent care: excessive thirst, dark urine, infrequent urination, and dizziness when you stand up. For adults, vomiting that lasts more than two days is worth a doctor’s visit. For children under two, the threshold is 24 hours, and for infants, 12 hours. Unexplained weight loss alongside recurring nausea over a month or longer also needs investigation.