When your stomach is upset, the best foods are bland, soft, and low in fiber: think plain toast, bananas, white rice, applesauce, crackers, and broth. These are easy for your digestive system to break down without triggering more nausea or cramping. But the old advice to eat only those four “BRAT diet” foods (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast) is outdated. You can and should branch out to other gentle options so your body gets the nutrients it needs to recover.
Why the BRAT Diet Isn’t Enough
For decades, the BRAT diet was the standard recommendation for stomach trouble. It’s not wrong exactly, but it’s incomplete. Those four foods lack calcium, vitamin B12, protein, and fiber. The American Academy of Pediatrics no longer recommends a strict BRAT diet for children with diarrhea because it’s too restrictive and may actually slow recovery if followed for more than 24 hours.
The principle behind BRAT is still sound: eat bland, easy-to-digest foods. You just don’t need to limit yourself to only four of them. Plain oatmeal, saltine crackers, well-cooked potatoes, canned peaches without skin, eggs, and even tender chicken or fish all qualify as gentle foods that give your body more to work with.
The Best Foods for an Upset Stomach
Aim for foods with no more than 1 to 2 grams of fiber per serving, cooked until tender, and prepared simply (no heavy sauces, spices, or frying). Good options include:
- Starches: White rice, plain toast, saltines, graham crackers, plain oatmeal, white pasta, well-cooked potatoes
- Fruits: Bananas, applesauce, canned peaches (no skin), melons
- Proteins: Scrambled eggs, plain baked chicken, poached fish, tofu
- Vegetables: Cooked carrots, canned green beans, plain tomato sauce
- Other: Clear broth, Jell-O, creamy peanut butter in small amounts
Cooking method matters. Simmering, steaming, poaching, and baking in a covered dish all produce tender, easy-to-digest results. Raw vegetables and crunchy preparations are harder on an irritated stomach.
What to Drink (and Why It Matters More Than Food)
Hydration is the single most important thing when you’re dealing with vomiting or diarrhea. You lose water, sodium, and potassium rapidly, and replacing those is more urgent than eating solid food.
Start with small sips of water every 15 minutes, or suck on ice chips if even water feels like too much. Once that stays down, move to clear fluids like broth, watered-down electrolyte drinks, or ice pops. The ideal rehydration fluid has a 1:1 ratio of sodium to glucose, which is the ratio that your gut absorbs most efficiently. The World Health Organization’s oral rehydration formula uses 75 milliequivalents each of sodium and glucose per liter.
Sports drinks, sodas, and fruit juices don’t meet this standard. They typically contain too little sodium and too much sugar. That excess sugar can actually pull more water into your intestines through osmosis, making diarrhea worse. Premixed oral rehydration solutions from a pharmacy are a better choice. If those aren’t available, diluting a sports drink with an equal amount of water is a reasonable compromise.
The Right Timeline for Eating Again
If you’ve been vomiting, give your stomach a few hours of rest before eating anything. During that window, focus only on ice chips and small sips of water. Once you can keep water down for a few hours, try clear liquids like broth or diluted electrolyte drinks.
When your appetite starts returning, begin with small portions of bland food. Eat slowly. Instead of three normal meals, try five or six smaller ones throughout the day. Your stomach is still recovering, and flooding it with a large meal can restart the nausea cycle. Most people can return to their normal diet within 24 to 48 hours, gradually adding back more variety as they feel better.
Ginger and Peppermint for Nausea
Ginger is one of the most studied natural remedies for nausea. Its active compounds work by blocking certain chemical signals in the gut and brain that trigger the urge to vomit, and by speeding up stomach emptying so food doesn’t sit and cause that heavy, queasy feeling. Research on chemotherapy-related nausea suggests that 1 gram or more per day for at least three days can reduce vomiting. For everyday stomach upset, ginger tea, ginger chews, or a small piece of fresh ginger are all reasonable options.
Peppermint tea can also help settle nausea for some people, and there’s limited evidence that peppermint oil reduces stomach spasms. However, concentrated peppermint oil taken on its own can worsen indigestion in some cases. Stick with peppermint tea rather than oil capsules if your stomach is already irritated. Keep peppermint oil away from infants and young children entirely, as inhaling menthol can affect their breathing.
Probiotics Can Shorten Recovery
If your upset stomach involves diarrhea, probiotics may help you recover faster. A large Cochrane review found that probiotics shortened the average duration of diarrhea by about 30 hours and reduced the risk of diarrhea lasting three or more days by roughly a third. The yeast strain Saccharomyces boulardii was particularly effective, cutting the risk of diarrhea lasting four or more days by nearly 60%.
You can find Saccharomyces boulardii in supplement form at most pharmacies. Yogurt with live cultures is another option, though dairy can be tricky on an upset stomach (more on that below). If you tolerate yogurt well, it pulls double duty as both a probiotic source and a soft, protein-rich food.
Foods and Drinks to Avoid
Certain foods actively work against your recovery. High-fat foods slow stomach emptying, which means food sits longer and increases the chance of nausea and discomfort. Fried foods, cheese, creamy sauces, and fatty cuts of meat are best avoided until you’re feeling better.
Caffeine stimulates your digestive tract and can worsen diarrhea. Alcohol irritates the stomach lining and is dehydrating. Spicy foods and acidic foods like citrus and tomato juice can aggravate an already inflamed stomach. Carbonated drinks may feel soothing in the moment but can cause bloating and gas.
Dairy is a gray area. Lactose, the sugar in milk, requires an enzyme to digest that your gut may temporarily produce less of when it’s inflamed. If you normally tolerate dairy fine, small amounts of yogurt or a splash of milk may be okay. But if you notice it makes things worse, skip it until you’ve fully recovered. High-fat dairy like ice cream and cheese is best avoided regardless.
Raw vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, dried fruit, and anything with tough skins or husks are all harder to digest and can irritate your stomach further. Save the salads and whole wheat bread for when you’re back to normal.