When your stomach is upset, the best things to eat are simple, low-fiber, low-fat foods that move through your digestive system without making it work too hard. Think plain white rice, bananas, broth, toast, applesauce, and eggs. Equally important is what you avoid: fatty foods, spicy dishes, caffeine, and alcohol will all make things worse. Here’s how to eat your way through it and feel better faster.
Start With Fluids, Not Food
Before you think about eating, focus on staying hydrated. Vomiting and diarrhea drain your body of water and essential minerals fast. Plain water helps, but it doesn’t replace the sodium and potassium you’re losing. Broth is one of the best first-line options because it delivers both fluid and salt in a form your stomach can handle.
If you’re dealing with significant fluid loss, you can make a simple rehydration drink at home: 8 level teaspoons of sugar and 1 level teaspoon of salt stirred into 1 liter of water. The sugar isn’t just for taste. Your intestines absorb water more efficiently when glucose and sodium are present together, so this combination gets fluid into your body faster than water alone. Sip slowly rather than gulping. Weak tea and diluted fruit juice (avoiding citrus) are also gentle options.
The Best Foods for a Sensitive Stomach
The goal is to eat foods that are easy to break down, low in fat, and unlikely to irritate your stomach lining. These are your safest bets:
- White rice and refined pasta: White rice empties from the stomach significantly faster than brown rice, which still has its bran layer intact. That bran slows digestion and can aggravate nausea. Stick with refined grains until you’re feeling better.
- Bananas: Soft, mild, and rich in potassium, which you lose during vomiting or diarrhea.
- Applesauce: Contains pectin, a soluble fiber that feeds beneficial gut bacteria and helps produce compounds that protect and repair the intestinal lining. Studies in infants with persistent diarrhea found that pectin-rich diets improved intestinal barrier function.
- Toast and crackers: Made with refined white flour, these absorb excess stomach acid and are easy to digest. Graham crackers and vanilla wafers work too.
- Eggs: Scrambled or boiled with no added fat, eggs provide protein without stressing your system.
- Lean poultry or white fish: Steamed, baked, or grilled with nothing added. These give you protein and energy as your appetite returns.
- Cooked vegetables and potatoes: Raw vegetables are harder to break down. Cooking softens the fiber and makes them gentler on your gut. Potatoes are especially well tolerated.
- Broth and simple soups: Easy to keep down and a good vehicle for salt and hydration.
You may have heard of the BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast). It’s been recommended for decades, and those four foods are genuinely easy on your stomach. But current medical guidance notes that the BRAT diet alone doesn’t provide adequate nutrition, and prolonged reliance on it can leave you short on protein, fat, and key vitamins. Use BRAT foods as your starting point, then expand to other bland options like eggs, lean meat, and cooked vegetables as soon as you can tolerate them.
Ginger and Peppermint: What Actually Helps
Ginger has real science behind it. Compounds in ginger interact with serotonin receptors in the gut, the same receptors targeted by prescription anti-nausea medications. Ginger also stimulates gastric motility, helping food move through your stomach rather than sitting there and causing that heavy, queasy feeling. Fresh ginger steeped in hot water, ginger chews, or flat ginger ale (let the carbonation dissipate first) are all practical ways to get it in.
Peppermint is more nuanced. It relaxes the smooth muscles of the digestive tract, which can relieve cramping and bloating. But that same muscle-relaxing effect loosens the valve between your esophagus and stomach, making acid reflux more likely. If your upset stomach involves heartburn or a burning sensation in your chest, skip the peppermint tea. If your symptoms are more cramping and nausea without reflux, peppermint can be soothing.
Foods and Drinks to Avoid
Some foods are genuinely harder for an irritated stomach to process, and others actively make things worse.
Fatty and fried foods linger in the stomach longer than other foods because fat slows gastric emptying. The longer food sits there, the more likely you are to feel nauseous or experience acid creeping up into your esophagus. This means skipping burgers, pizza, fried chicken, and creamy sauces until your stomach settles.
Spicy foods, citrus fruits, tomato-based sauces, and vinegar can all intensify heartburn by irritating an already inflamed stomach lining. Chocolate, caffeine, onions, carbonated drinks, and alcohol also tend to worsen symptoms. Coffee is a double hit: caffeine stimulates acid production while the drink itself can speed up gut motility in ways that aggravate diarrhea.
Full-fat dairy is another common trigger. If you want dairy, stick with low-fat or fat-free options. Whole milk, ice cream, and aged cheeses sit heavier and can increase nausea.
Probiotics Can Shorten Recovery
If your upset stomach involves diarrhea, probiotics may help you recover faster. Two specific strains have the strongest evidence behind them. One is a bacterium called Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG, and the other is a beneficial yeast called Saccharomyces boulardii. Both have been shown across multiple clinical trials to reduce the duration of acute diarrhea by roughly one day. That might not sound dramatic, but when you’re miserable, cutting a day off matters.
You can find these in supplement form at most pharmacies. Yogurt with live active cultures also delivers beneficial bacteria, though the strains and amounts vary by brand. If you go the yogurt route, choose plain, low-fat varieties without added sugar.
How to Ease Back Into Normal Eating
Don’t try to eat a full meal the moment you feel slightly better. Your digestive system needs a gradual ramp-up. Start with small amounts of the blandest foods: a few spoonfuls of rice, half a banana, some broth. If that stays down comfortably for a few hours, eat a bit more and add slightly more variety.
Over the next day or two, introduce lean proteins, cooked vegetables, and simple starches. Save raw vegetables, whole grains, high-fiber foods, and anything fried or heavily seasoned for last. Most people can return to their normal diet within two to three days of symptoms improving. If you rush it, you risk triggering another round of nausea or cramping simply because your gut wasn’t ready for the workload.