When your stomach is upset, the best things to eat are bland, low-fat foods that require minimal effort to digest. Think plain crackers, bananas, broth, toast, and applesauce. But the full list is broader than you might expect, and what you drink matters just as much as what you eat.
Start With Liquids, Then Ease Into Food
If you’ve been vomiting, don’t eat or drink anything right away. Give your stomach a few hours to settle. Then start with ice chips or small sips of water every 15 minutes. Once you’ve kept liquids down for a few hours, you can try small amounts of solid food.
If your upset stomach is more of a general queasiness or cramping without vomiting, you can skip straight to bland foods. Either way, eat small portions. A few bites every hour or two is better than a full plate.
Foods That Are Easy on Your Stomach
You have more options than the old “bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast” advice. Most experts no longer recommend restricting yourself to just those four foods. A wider variety of gentle foods actually helps your body recover faster by providing more balanced nutrition. Here’s what works:
- Starches and grains: White rice, plain toast, saltine crackers, graham crackers, plain oatmeal, pasta made with white flour, and hot cereals like Cream of Wheat.
- Fruits: Bananas, applesauce, canned fruit, and melons. These are low in fiber and gentle on digestion.
- Proteins: Plain scrambled or boiled eggs, baked or steamed chicken breast, white fish, tofu, and creamy peanut butter in small amounts.
- Soups: Broth-based soups, especially plain chicken or vegetable broth. These also help with hydration.
- Other: Potatoes (no butter or sour cream), cooked vegetables, gelatin, popsicles, pudding, and vanilla wafers.
The common thread is low fat, low fiber, and minimal seasoning. Your digestive system is already irritated, and these foods move through without adding extra work.
What to Drink
Dehydration is the biggest risk with an upset stomach, especially if you’re dealing with vomiting or diarrhea. Water is fine for mild cases, but if you’ve lost a lot of fluid, you need to replace electrolytes too. Over-the-counter rehydration drinks like Pedialyte are designed for exactly this purpose, with a balanced mix of sodium, potassium, and glucose that helps your body absorb the fluid more efficiently.
Weak tea is another good option. Coconut water works in a pinch. Sports drinks are better than nothing, though they tend to have more sugar and less sodium than ideal rehydration solutions. Avoid anything carbonated, as the gas can make bloating and nausea worse.
Ginger and Peppermint Actually Help
Ginger is one of the few natural remedies with solid clinical evidence behind it. It reduces nausea effectively at doses around 1,000 mg per day, which is roughly a half-teaspoon of dried ginger powder. Capsules contain the highest concentration of the active compounds, but fresh ginger sliced into hot water works too, just less potently. Ginger tea bags have the lowest concentration of active ingredients, so if you go that route, steep it strong.
Peppermint works differently. It relaxes the smooth muscle in your digestive tract by blocking calcium from entering the muscle cells, which reduces cramping and spasms. If your upset stomach involves abdominal cramps or that tight, clenched feeling, peppermint tea can bring real relief. Sucking on a peppermint candy may help with mild nausea as well.
Foods and Drinks to Avoid
Some things that seem harmless will make an upset stomach noticeably worse:
- Fatty or fried foods: Dietary fat slows digestion, leaving food sitting in your stomach longer. This increases that uncomfortable fullness and can worsen nausea and heartburn.
- Dairy (for many people): If you’re even mildly lactose intolerant, an upset stomach amplifies the problem. Without enough of the enzyme that breaks down milk sugar, dairy can cause bloating, gas, and diarrhea. Low-fat yogurt is an exception for some people because the fermentation process partially breaks down lactose.
- Coffee and caffeinated drinks: Caffeine irritates the stomach lining and speeds up your digestive tract, which can trigger cramping, bloating, and diarrhea when your gut is already sensitive.
- Spicy foods: These directly irritate an already inflamed stomach lining.
- Citrus fruits and tomatoes: The acidity can aggravate nausea and heartburn.
- Alcohol: It irritates and inflames the stomach lining and promotes dehydration.
Probiotics Can Speed Recovery
If your upset stomach is caused by a stomach bug, probiotics may shorten your symptoms by a day or more. The strain with the most evidence behind it is Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG, found in products like Culturelle. Bifidobacterium lactis Bb-12 also shows strong results. Clinical trials have found these strains reduce both the duration and severity of diarrhea caused by viral infections, cutting recovery time by roughly one to one and a half days.
Probiotics aren’t a quick fix for the first few hours of misery, but starting them early in a stomach illness gives them time to work. You can also get them from fermented foods like plain yogurt or kefir once your stomach can handle them.
How Quickly You Should Recover
Most upset stomachs from food, stress, or a virus resolve within 24 to 48 hours. Your eating timeline generally looks like this: liquids only for the first few hours (especially after vomiting), then bland foods in small amounts, then gradually returning to your normal diet as you feel better. There’s no need to force yourself through a rigid progression. Let your appetite guide you.
Some signs mean something more serious is going on. Severe abdominal pain that doesn’t ease within 30 minutes, continuous vomiting that prevents you from keeping anything down for 24 to 48 hours, fever combined with worsening pain, or blood in your vomit or stool all warrant medical attention. Pain that starts near your belly button and moves to your lower right side could signal appendicitis.