When you have diarrhea, the best foods are bland, low-fiber, and easy to digest: white rice, bananas, plain toast, boiled potatoes, broth-based soups, and lean proteins like skinless chicken. These foods give your gut less work to do while replacing nutrients you’re losing. The classic BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast) is a fine starting point, but you don’t need to limit yourself to just those four items.
Why Bland Foods Help
Loose, watery stools mean your intestines aren’t absorbing water the way they normally do. Certain foods can slow things down. Bananas and applesauce both contain pectin, a type of soluble fiber that absorbs excess water in the gut and helps firm up your stool. Plain white rice works similarly: its starch converts into soluble fiber during digestion, which forms a gel-like consistency that holds water in place rather than letting it rush through.
Bananas also replenish potassium, one of the key minerals your body loses during repeated bouts of diarrhea. This matters because low potassium can leave you feeling weak, fatigued, and dizzy on top of already feeling miserable.
Foods That Are Safe to Eat
You have more options than just bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast. The goal is to choose foods that are soft, low in fiber, and unlikely to irritate your stomach. Good choices include:
- Starches: White rice, plain white pasta, saltine crackers, oatmeal, boiled or baked potatoes (without skin), unsweetened dry cereals with less than 2 grams of fiber per serving
- Proteins: Skinless chicken or turkey, baked or poached fish, eggs, tofu, creamy peanut butter
- Cooked vegetables: Carrots, green beans, butternut squash, pumpkin, sweet potatoes without skin
- Fruits: Bananas, applesauce, avocado
- Liquids: Brothy soups (chicken or vegetable), electrolyte drinks, water, weak tea
How you prepare food matters almost as much as what you eat. Simmering, steaming, poaching, and braising all break food down before it reaches your stomach, making digestion easier. Raw vegetables and tough or chewy meats force your gut to work harder, which is the opposite of what you want.
Foods to Avoid Until You Recover
Some foods actively make diarrhea worse by pulling extra water into your intestines. Sugary drinks, fruit juices, and anything sweetened with sugar alcohols (sorbitol, mannitol, xylitol) can trigger what’s called osmotic diarrhea, where unabsorbed sugars draw fluid into the bowel. Mannitol is particularly problematic because it lingers in the intestines for a long time. These sweeteners show up in sugar-free gum, candy, protein bars, and many “diet” products.
Other foods to skip while your gut is recovering:
- Greasy or fried foods: High fat content speeds up intestinal contractions
- Raw vegetables and salads: The insoluble fiber is hard to break down
- Spicy foods: Can irritate an already inflamed digestive tract
- Caffeine and alcohol: Both stimulate the gut and promote fluid loss
- Beans, broccoli, cabbage: Gas-producing foods add cramping to an already uncomfortable situation
Be Careful With Dairy
Milk and ice cream can be a real problem during and after a bout of diarrhea, even if you normally tolerate dairy just fine. The enzyme that digests lactose (milk sugar) sits on the very tips of the tiny finger-like projections lining your intestines. These tips are the first structures damaged when your gut is inflamed from an infection. When they’re injured, your body temporarily loses some of its ability to break down lactose, and undigested lactose in the intestine pulls in water and causes more diarrhea.
This temporary lactose sensitivity is especially common after stomach flu or food poisoning. It usually resolves on its own as the intestinal lining heals, but in the meantime, yogurt is a better choice than milk. The fermentation process breaks down much of the lactose, and yogurt contains live bacterial cultures that may support gut recovery.
Probiotics and Fermented Foods
Yogurt with live cultures, kefir, and probiotic supplements can help shorten a bout of diarrhea. Not all probiotics are equal, though. One well-studied strain, Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG, reduced the duration of acute diarrhea by roughly 19 hours in a clinical trial and shortened hospital stays by nearly a full day. It also cut stool frequency by about 32% within two days. Other strains have shown more modest or inconsistent results.
If you’re buying a probiotic supplement specifically for diarrhea, look for one that lists the strain on the label, not just the species. For food-based options, plain yogurt with active cultures and traditional kefir are your most accessible choices.
Hydration Matters More Than Food
Replacing lost fluids is actually more urgent than eating the right foods. Every watery stool pulls water, sodium, and potassium out of your body. If you’re not hungry, that’s okay. You don’t need to force yourself to eat. But you do need to keep drinking. Small, frequent sips of water, broth, or an oral electrolyte solution work better than gulping large amounts at once, which can trigger nausea.
Broth-based soups are especially useful because they deliver fluid, sodium, and a small amount of calories all at once. Chicken soup with rice or noodles checks nearly every box: hydration, electrolytes, easily digestible starch, and a little protein.
Feeding Children With Diarrhea
The advice for kids has shifted in recent years. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children return to a normal, well-balanced diet appropriate for their age within 24 hours of getting sick, including fruits, vegetables, meat, yogurt, and complex carbohydrates. Prolonged fasting or overly restrictive diets aren’t recommended and can actually delay recovery by depriving a child’s body of the nutrients it needs to heal.
If a child is vomiting along with the diarrhea, it’s fine to temporarily reduce solid food and focus on small, frequent sips of an electrolyte solution. Once the vomiting settles, let them eat as much or as little of their usual diet as they want.
When to Return to Your Normal Diet
For most people with acute diarrhea from a stomach bug or food poisoning, the simple answer is: eat normally again when you feel ready. There’s no strict timeline or set of stages you need to follow. If bland foods are all that sound appealing on day one, stick with those. If you feel up for a regular meal the next day, go for it.
That said, it’s smart to ease back gradually rather than jumping straight to a large, rich meal. Add one or two new foods at a time and see how your stomach responds. Cooked vegetables, lean meats, and eggs are good bridge foods between a bland diet and your regular routine. If a particular food triggers cramping or another round of loose stools, back off and try again in a day or two.