When your stomach is upset, the best foods are bland, low-fat, and easy to digest: plain rice, bananas, toast, broth, boiled potatoes, and crackers. The goal is to give your digestive system the least amount of work possible while still getting calories and fluids in. What you avoid matters just as much as what you eat, and timing your return to normal food makes a real difference in how quickly you recover.
Start With Liquids Before Solid Food
If you’re actively nauseous or vomiting, skip solid food entirely for a few hours. Sip small amounts of liquid frequently rather than drinking a full glass at once. Clear broth, plain water, and herbal tea are all good starting points. Small, frequent sips are easier on your stomach than gulping, which can trigger more nausea.
Once you can keep liquids down for a couple of hours without vomiting, you can start introducing small amounts of bland solid food. This is the point where most people reach for the classic BRAT foods: bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast. They work well, but you don’t need to limit yourself to just those four.
The Best Foods for an Upset Stomach
Anything bland, soft, and low in fat will be gentle on your stomach. Good options include:
- Plain white rice or oatmeal
- Bananas
- Plain toast or crackers
- Boiled or mashed potatoes
- Brothy soups (not cream-based)
- Unsweetened dry cereal
- Plain noodles
- Gelatin
Once your stomach starts to settle, usually after a day or two, you can add more nutritious options that are still easy to digest. Cooked carrots, sweet potatoes without the skin, butternut or pumpkin squash, avocado, skinless chicken or turkey, eggs, and fish all provide protein and nutrients your body needs to recover without being harsh on your gut.
Eat small portions. A few bites every hour or two is better than a full plate, especially in the first day. Your stomach is inflamed or irritated, and flooding it with a large meal can restart nausea or cramping.
Hydration Matters More Than Food
Dehydration is the biggest risk with any stomach bug, food poisoning, or prolonged vomiting and diarrhea. You lose water, sodium, and potassium rapidly, and plain water alone doesn’t replace what’s lost. Oral rehydration solutions like Pedialyte contain the right balance of sugar, salt, and minerals to help your body actually absorb the fluid. Sports drinks like Gatorade aren’t ideal because they contain too much sugar and not enough sodium.
You can make a simple rehydration drink at home using the World Health Organization’s formula: 2 tablespoons of sugar, half a teaspoon of salt, a quarter teaspoon of salt substitute (like No Salt, which provides potassium), and half a teaspoon of baking soda mixed into 4 cups of water. It won’t taste great, but it works.
Signs of mild dehydration include a dry mouth, darker urine, and feeling thirsty. Moderate dehydration shows up as sunken eyes, decreased tears, a faster heart rate, and skin that’s slow to bounce back when you pinch it. If you notice cracked or parched lips, dizziness when standing, a very fast pulse, or extreme lethargy, that’s severe dehydration and needs medical attention.
Foods and Drinks That Make It Worse
Some foods actively irritate an already upset stomach or pull water into your intestines, worsening diarrhea. Avoid these until you’re fully recovered:
- Fried and greasy food. When fat isn’t absorbed normally in the upper digestive tract, it reaches the colon and gets broken down into fatty acids that trigger fluid secretion and diarrhea.
- Dairy products. Milk, cheese, yogurt, butter, and ice cream are hard to digest when your gut is inflamed.
- Sugary foods and drinks. Sugar stimulates your gut to release water and electrolytes, loosening bowel movements. Soda, juice, candy, and desserts all fall into this category.
- Artificial sweeteners. Sorbitol, mannitol, and xylitol, found in sugar-free gum and candy, are poorly digested and can cause or worsen diarrhea on their own.
- Coffee, alcohol, and caffeinated tea. All three irritate the stomach lining and can increase acid production.
- Acidic foods. Citrus fruits, tomato sauces, and vinegar-based foods can worsen nausea and trigger heartburn.
- Spicy foods. Same problem as acidic foods, plus they can irritate an already inflamed gut lining.
- High-fiber foods. Leafy greens, fruit and vegetable skins, popcorn, nuts, seeds, and beans contain insoluble fiber that’s hard to break down when your stomach is already struggling.
Fructose deserves a special mention. It’s naturally present in many fruits, especially peaches, pears, cherries, and apples. People who consume more than 40 to 80 grams of fructose per day often develop diarrhea even when they’re healthy. When your stomach is already upset, much smaller amounts can be a problem. Stick to bananas, which are lower in fructose, until you’re feeling better.
Ginger and Peppermint for Nausea and Cramping
Ginger has real anti-nausea effects. The active compounds in ginger root help calm the stomach, and clinical studies have used ginger extract containing around 8 milligrams of these active compounds to reduce nausea. You don’t need to measure milligrams at home. A cup of fresh ginger tea, made by steeping a few thin slices of raw ginger in hot water for 5 to 10 minutes, is a practical way to get enough. Ginger chews or ginger candies (low in sugar) work too.
Peppermint helps with stomach cramping specifically. It relaxes the smooth muscle in your digestive tract by blocking calcium channels that trigger muscle contractions. Peppermint tea is the simplest option. If you’re dealing more with nausea than cramping, ginger is the better choice, since peppermint can sometimes relax the valve between your stomach and esophagus and make reflux worse.
Probiotics Can Shorten Recovery
If your upset stomach involves diarrhea, probiotics may help you recover faster. Meta-analyses of clinical trials have found that probiotics, particularly strains in the Lactobacillus family, reduce the duration of acute diarrhea by roughly one day. For diarrhea caused by rotavirus specifically, the reduction was even larger, around two days shorter. Look for probiotic supplements or drinks that list specific strains on the label rather than just “probiotic blend.” Yogurt is a common probiotic source, but since dairy can worsen symptoms during active stomach upset, a supplement or non-dairy fermented drink is a better choice until you’re improving.
A Practical Recovery Timeline
Most stomach bugs and food poisoning episodes resolve within one to three days. Here’s a general approach to eating your way through it:
In the first few hours, when symptoms are worst, stick entirely to small sips of clear liquids: water, broth, oral rehydration solution, or ginger tea. Don’t force food.
Once vomiting has stopped for at least two to three hours, try a few bites of something bland: a few crackers, a quarter of a banana, a small bowl of plain rice. Keep portions tiny.
Over the next day or two, gradually increase portion sizes while staying with bland foods. Add boiled potatoes, plain noodles, toast, and brothy soups. If something triggers nausea or cramping, back off and wait a few more hours.
By days two to three, if you’re keeping food down and diarrhea is improving, start adding lean proteins like chicken, eggs, or fish, along with cooked vegetables like carrots and squash. These give your body the nutrition it needs to finish recovering.
Return to your normal diet gradually. Reintroduce dairy, high-fiber foods, and richer meals one at a time so you can identify anything that still bothers you. Jumping straight from crackers to a cheeseburger is a reliable way to end up back where you started.