What Can You Eat When You Have Diarrhea?

Plain, low-fiber, easy-to-digest foods like white rice, bananas, toast, boiled potatoes, and clear broths are your safest choices when you have diarrhea. But the older advice of starving a gut bug until it passes has been largely abandoned by medical guidelines. Current evidence favors eating early and staying hydrated, with certain foods actively helping your recovery and others making things worse. The details of what to reach for, what to skip, and why matter more than the standard “BRAT diet” shorthand suggests.

Eat Sooner Rather Than Later

A generation ago, the standard recommendation was to rest the gut by fasting for a day or two after diarrhea started, then gradually reintroduce bland foods. That thinking has been replaced. A Cochrane review of trials comparing early refeeding to delayed refeeding in acute diarrhea found no evidence that eating sooner increases the risk of vomiting, the need for intravenous fluids, or the development of prolonged symptoms.¹ European gastroenterology guidelines now recommend continuing regular feeding without dietary changes, including milk, during acute gastroenteritis.² The same principle applies to adults: your intestines recover faster when they have something to work with.

That said, “eat early” does not mean “eat anything.” What you choose matters. The goal is food that provides calories and nutrients without overwhelming an already-irritated gut. Small, frequent meals tend to be easier to tolerate than three large ones.

Hydration Comes Before Food

Before worrying about solid food, focus on fluids. Diarrhea pulls water and electrolytes out of your body quickly, and dehydration is the most immediate risk, especially in young children and older adults. Plain water helps, but it does not replace lost sodium and potassium very efficiently on its own.

Oral rehydration solutions work because they exploit a specific mechanism in your intestinal lining: sodium and glucose together activate a transport protein that pulls water into your cells. Research on this pathway estimates that it accounts for roughly five liters of water absorption per day in the human intestine.³ The ratio of sodium to glucose in a rehydration drink matters for how well it drives absorption.⁴ That is why pharmacy-grade oral rehydration solutions are formulated to specific concentrations rather than just mixing sugar and salt at random.

A small randomized trial comparing a commercial sports drink, a standard oral rehydration solution, and a pediatric electrolyte drink in adults with viral gastroenteritis found that stool frequency and consistency improved similarly across all three groups. However, the sports drink group showed more instances of low potassium and low sodium levels at follow-up.⁵ So while sports drinks are better than nothing, a properly balanced oral rehydration solution is the more reliable choice, particularly if your diarrhea is severe or lasting more than a day.

Other helpful fluids include clear broths (which supply sodium naturally), diluted fruit juices, and weak herbal teas. Sipping steadily throughout the day works better than trying to gulp large volumes at once, which can trigger nausea.

Foods That Are Generally Well Tolerated

The classic “BRAT” acronym (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast) has been repeated so often that many people think it is a formal medical protocol. It is not. No major gastroenterology society endorses it as a complete diet during illness. It emerged as a practical shorthand for bland, binding foods, and the individual items in it are indeed gentle on the gut, but the list is too limited to provide adequate nutrition if followed exclusively for more than a day.

A broader set of foods that tend to sit well during diarrhea includes:

White rice and plain pasta: Low in fiber, easy to digest, and a good source of calories. Brown rice, by contrast, has more insoluble fiber and can worsen loose stools.
Bananas: Rich in potassium, which you lose through watery stool. Their pectin content also helps absorb water in the gut.
Boiled or baked potatoes: Starchy and mild. Skip the butter and sour cream for now.
Plain toast or crackers: White bread is easier to handle than whole grain during an active episode.
Cooked carrots and peeled applesauce: Both contain soluble fiber and pectin.
Lean chicken or fish: Protein supports recovery. Keep preparation simple: baked, steamed, or boiled, without heavy seasoning or oils.
Eggs: Scrambled or soft-boiled eggs are easy to digest and protein-dense.
Clear soups and broths: Replace fluid and sodium simultaneously. Chicken soup with noodles or rice is a solid choice.

Pectin, the soluble fiber found in apples, bananas, and carrots, deserves a mention because research has shown it can form a gel in the colon that holds water and helps produce more formed stools. An animal study found that low-methoxy pectin prevented diarrhea and restored normal colonic contractions during liquid feeding.⁶ While human evidence is thinner, the general principle holds: soluble fiber absorbs excess water in the intestine, whereas insoluble fiber (bran, raw vegetables, seeds) speeds things up and can make diarrhea worse.

Yogurt and Fermented Foods

You might assume all dairy is off-limits during diarrhea, but yogurt is a notable exception. The live bacteria in yogurt produce lactase, the enzyme that breaks down milk sugar, so yogurt is often tolerated even when other dairy products cause trouble.⁷ Beyond better lactose digestion, the lactic acid bacteria in fermented dairy can slow intestinal transit time, giving your gut more time to absorb water and nutrients.

Studies on specific probiotic strains have shown concrete benefits. Saccharomyces boulardii, a probiotic yeast commonly sold as a supplement, reduced the duration of acute diarrhea by about a day compared to controls in one trial, and lowered the frequency of subsequent episodes over the following two months.⁸ A larger real-world study in adults found that about three-quarters of patients taking S. boulardii alongside standard treatment reported no diarrhea at follow-up, compared to roughly one in six in the control group.⁹ A systematic review covering multiple types of adult diarrhea concluded that S. boulardii shows promise for treating acute diarrhea, preventing recurrent C. difficile infections, and managing antibiotic-associated symptoms, though the authors noted more evidence was needed for several of those uses.¹⁰

Lactobacillus strains, the type most commonly found in yogurt with live active cultures, have also been studied. A meta-analysis of randomized trials found that Lactobacillus therapy reduced both the duration and frequency of diarrheal episodes in children with acute infectious diarrhea.¹¹ Interestingly, some of these benefits persist even when the bacteria are no longer viable, suggesting the microbial components themselves influence gut function beyond just colonization.¹²

If you are going to eat yogurt during a diarrheal episode, choose plain varieties without added sugar. Heavily sweetened yogurts can pull more water into the intestine and work against you.

What to Avoid

Some foods and drinks reliably make diarrhea worse. Knowing why helps you make smarter choices, especially with foods that seem harmless.

Caffeine. Coffee, strong tea, and energy drinks can increase fluid secretion in the small intestine. Research has confirmed that caffeine stimulates water secretion in the intestinal lining, which is the opposite of what you want when you are already losing fluids.¹³ Coffee also speeds up colonic motility, shortening the time food spends in your gut and reducing water absorption.

Sugar alcohols. Ingredients like sorbitol, xylitol, and mannitol are common in sugar-free gum, candies, and some “light” or “diet” products. These compounds are poorly absorbed in the small intestine. When they reach the colon, they draw water in by osmosis, which can trigger or worsen loose stools even in people without an underlying gut problem.¹⁴ If you are already dealing with diarrhea, even small amounts can extend the episode.

Fatty and fried foods. Fat slows gastric emptying but can speed colonic transit, and it requires bile salts for digestion. An irritated gut often handles fat poorly, leading to greasy stools and cramping. Stick to lean proteins and avoid deep-fried anything until your stools firm up.

High-fiber vegetables and whole grains. Raw salads, beans, whole bran cereals, and cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and cabbage are normally healthy, but their insoluble fiber adds bulk and speeds movement through the colon. Fiber is fermented in the distal gut, producing gas and short-chain fatty acids that can further stimulate motility.¹⁵ Save the roughage for when you are feeling better.

Alcohol. It irritates the intestinal lining and impairs both digestion and fluid absorption. Even moderate amounts can worsen diarrhea.

Spicy foods. Capsaicin and other irritants can aggravate an already inflamed intestinal tract, increasing cramping and urgency.

The Dairy Question

Milk is one of the most debated items during diarrhea. The concern centers on lactose: during an acute gut infection, the cells lining the small intestine can temporarily stop producing enough lactase, the enzyme that digests lactose.¹⁶ Undigested lactose then reaches the colon, where bacteria ferment it, producing gas and drawing water into the stool. This temporary lactose intolerance is well documented in young children with viral gastroenteritis and typically resolves once the underlying infection clears.¹⁷

Despite this, European guidelines for managing childhood gastroenteritis recommend continuing milk and regular formula without interruption.² An international consensus on infant diarrhea management also supports early refeeding with breast milk or regular formula.¹⁸ The reasoning is that the nutritional benefit of milk outweighs the modest increase in stool output for most children.

For adults, the practical approach is to pay attention to your own response. If a glass of milk clearly worsens your symptoms, switch to lactose-free milk or yogurt (which, as noted above, is usually well tolerated because of its bacterial lactase). Do not assume you need to avoid all dairy; yogurt and aged cheeses contain very little lactose and are generally fine.

Zinc Supplements

If you have been reading about diarrhea management in a global health context, you have likely come across zinc. The World Health Organization recommends zinc supplementation alongside oral rehydration for children with acute diarrhea, based on strong evidence. A meta-analysis found that zinc shortened the duration of acute diarrhea by about 15% and reduced stool frequency by roughly 19% compared to placebo in children.¹⁹ There is also evidence that zinc helps repair intestinal lining damaged by infection. In children recovering from shigellosis, zinc supplementation improved intestinal permeability and protein absorption, suggesting it helps restore the gut barrier.²⁰

Most of this research has been done in low- and middle-income settings where zinc deficiency is common, so the benefit for well-nourished adults in high-income countries is less clear. Still, if you are having a prolonged bout, a short course of zinc (typically 20 mg per day for adults) is inexpensive and unlikely to cause harm. Zinc-rich foods include shellfish, red meat, chickpeas, and pumpkin seeds, though during active diarrhea a supplement is more practical than trying to eat a zinc-rich meal.

Glutamine and Gut Repair

Glutamine is an amino acid that serves as the primary fuel source for the cells lining your intestine. During severe metabolic stress, including prolonged diarrhea and inflammatory bowel disease, glutamine stores become depleted. Research shows that glutamine promotes the growth of new intestinal lining cells, helps maintain tight junctions between those cells (which control what passes through the gut wall), and damps down inflammatory signals.²¹ You get glutamine from protein-rich foods like chicken, fish, eggs, and dairy. For people whose diarrhea is part of a longer illness, ensuring adequate protein intake helps supply the raw material your gut needs to repair itself.

What About Food Additives and Emulsifiers

An often-overlooked angle is that certain ingredients in processed foods may contribute to gut irritation. Emulsifiers like carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) and polysorbate 80 (P80), found in many packaged foods to improve texture and shelf life, have been shown in animal models to damage the intestinal mucus layer and increase intestinal inflammation.²² While animal studies do not automatically translate to humans, this research suggests a reason to favor whole, minimally processed foods during a diarrheal episode. If your gut lining is already compromised by infection or inflammation, layering on additives that further disrupt the mucus barrier is probably not helping.

Practically, this means choosing real chicken broth over instant bouillon cubes packed with additives, cooking plain rice instead of eating flavored rice mixes, and picking whole-ingredient yogurt rather than processed puddings or desserts. The simpler the ingredient list, the less work your gut has to do.

Traveler’s Diarrhea

Diarrhea that strikes during or shortly after travel to regions with lower sanitation standards follows the same general dietary principles, but prevention adds an extra layer. Traveler’s diarrhea is most commonly caused by enterotoxigenic E. coli and can be minimized through careful food and drink choices: avoiding tap water and ice, eating only thoroughly cooked hot foods, peeling fruits yourself, and skipping street-vendor salads or buffet items that have been sitting at room temperature.²³

If traveler’s diarrhea does hit, oral rehydration is the top priority, followed by the same gentle-food strategy described above. Many travelers carry S. boulardii or Lactobacillus-based probiotics as a prophylactic measure, and the evidence cited earlier suggests these are at least modestly helpful. Bismuth subsalicylate (the active ingredient in Pepto-Bismol) has some preventive efficacy as well, though it needs to be taken multiple times a day and can cause darkened stools, which alarms people who are not expecting it.

When Different Types of Diarrhea Change What You Should Eat

Not all diarrhea works the same way, and the distinction matters for dietary choices. Osmotic diarrhea happens when something in the gut is drawing excess water into the stool, often an unabsorbed sugar or sugar alcohol. In this case, the fix is removing the offending substance. If you recently started a new sugar-free product, a magnesium supplement, or a high-fructose food and your stools turned watery, the connection is likely direct. Clinically, osmotic diarrhea tends to stop when you fast, because the osmotic agent is no longer arriving.²⁴

Secretory diarrhea, by contrast, involves the intestinal lining actively pumping fluids into the gut lumen, often triggered by bacterial toxins. It continues even during fasting. With secretory diarrhea, oral rehydration is critical because your body is losing electrolytes regardless of food intake. The foods you eat cannot stop the secretory process itself, but they can provide calories and nutrients while your immune system or medication fights the infection.

Antibiotic-associated diarrhea is a third common scenario. Antibiotics can disrupt the balance of bacteria in your colon, sometimes allowing C. difficile to take hold. If your diarrhea started within a few days of beginning an antibiotic course, probiotics are especially relevant. The S. boulardii evidence is strongest in this setting, with studies showing it helps prevent both initial antibiotic-associated diarrhea and recurrent C. difficile episodes.¹⁰ Meanwhile, fermented foods like yogurt and kefir help restock beneficial bacteria. Pairing a probiotic with prebiotic-friendly foods (like bananas, which feed good gut bacteria) can support recovery.

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