When your stomach is upset, the best foods are bland, low-fat, and easy to digest: think bananas, plain rice, toast, applesauce, crackers, and plain oatmeal. But timing matters as much as food choice. If you’ve been vomiting, start with small sips of water before eating anything solid, then gradually work your way back to a normal diet over a day or two.
Start With Fluids, Not Food
If you’ve been throwing up, give your stomach a break for a few hours before reaching for food or even water. Then start small: suck on ice chips or take tiny sips of water every 15 minutes. Pushing too much liquid too fast can trigger another round of vomiting.
Once you’ve kept water down for a little while, you can branch out to other clear fluids like broth, watered-down electrolyte drinks, ice pops, or gelatin. These give your body a bit of fuel and help replace lost fluids without asking much of your digestive system.
Dehydration is the main risk with any stomach illness, especially for young children. In adults, warning signs include dark urine, dizziness, confusion, and skin that stays “tented” when you pinch it instead of flattening right back. In infants, watch for no wet diapers for three hours, no tears when crying, or sunken eyes. A fever of 102°F or higher alongside these symptoms warrants a call to your doctor.
A Simple Homemade Rehydration Drink
If you don’t have a store-bought electrolyte drink on hand, the University of Virginia Health system recommends mixing 4 cups of water with half a teaspoon of table salt and 2 tablespoons of sugar. That ratio replaces the sodium and glucose your body loses during vomiting or diarrhea more effectively than plain water alone.
The Best Foods for an Upset Stomach
Once you’ve kept liquids down for a few hours and your appetite starts creeping back, begin with small amounts of bland food. The classic BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast) is a fine starting point, but it’s not the only option. You have more choices than you might think.
- Bananas are gentle on the stomach and provide potassium, which you lose when you’re vomiting or have diarrhea.
- Plain white rice or pasta is starchy, binding, and unlikely to irritate anything.
- Toast or crackers absorb stomach acid and give you a bit of energy without much flavor or fat to provoke nausea.
- Applesauce provides easy calories and a small amount of fiber in a form your stomach can handle.
- Plain oatmeal is soft, filling, and easy to digest.
- Skinless baked or roasted chicken adds protein without the fat that comes from frying or leaving the skin on.
- Eggs are another lean protein that most people tolerate well.
- Smooth peanut butter (a thin layer on toast, for example) provides protein and calories when you’re ready for something a little more substantial.
- Low-fat yogurt can be soothing, and the live cultures may support your gut as it recovers.
- Potatoes (baked or boiled, not fried) are bland, starchy, and filling.
- Vegetables cooked until very soft are easier to digest than raw ones.
Eat slowly, and keep portions small. Having five or six mini-meals throughout the day is easier on your stomach than sitting down to three regular-sized ones. When a small meal stays down without discomfort, you can gradually increase the amount and variety at your next meal.
Ginger and Peppermint Tea
Ginger is one of the most well-studied natural remedies for nausea. It speeds up the movement of food through your digestive tract and acts on the same receptors that prescription anti-nausea medications target. Clinical trials have found that doses between 250 mg and 1 gram per day (split into three or four portions) are effective, and higher doses don’t seem to work any better. In practical terms, that’s a few cups of ginger tea, a thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger steeped in hot water, or a handful of ginger chews spread across the day.
Peppermint tea is worth trying if cramping is your main symptom. The menthol in peppermint acts as a natural muscle relaxant, which can calm the spasms that cause stomach cramps. One important caveat: if you deal with acid reflux or GERD, peppermint can actually make things worse by relaxing the valve between your esophagus and stomach.
Foods and Drinks to Avoid
Certain foods slow digestion, increase stomach acid, or relax the valve that keeps stomach contents from pushing back up into your esophagus. When your stomach is already irritated, these are the ones to skip until you’re feeling normal again.
Fried and fatty foods are high in saturated fat, which takes significantly longer to break down. That keeps food sitting in your stomach longer than usual, which can worsen nausea and bloating. Greasy takeout, fast food, and anything deep-fried should wait.
Caffeine and carbonated drinks are a bad combination for an upset stomach. Carbonation inflates the stomach and raises internal pressure, while caffeine stimulates acid production. Together, they make acid reflux much more likely. Stick to caffeine-free beverages until you’re recovered.
Dairy can be a problem depending on the person. If you’re lactose intolerant, even mild symptoms get amplified when your gut is already struggling. Low-fat yogurt is generally an exception because the fermentation process breaks down much of the lactose, but a glass of whole milk or a slice of cheese may make things worse.
Spicy foods irritate the stomach lining directly. Even if you normally handle spice well, your stomach’s defenses are lower when it’s inflamed.
Alcohol increases acid production and irritates the digestive tract. It also dehydrates you, which is the opposite of what you need.
How Long Recovery Takes
Most stomach bugs and bouts of food-related upset resolve within 24 to 72 hours. The progression typically looks like this: a few hours of rest and ice chips, then clear liquids for several hours, then bland solids in small portions, then a gradual return to your normal diet. Don’t rush the last step. Jumping straight into a large, rich meal after a day of eating crackers is a common way to end up feeling sick again.
Your gut may take a bit longer to fully bounce back than the rest of you. After a stomach virus in particular, probiotics (found in yogurt, kefir, or supplements) may help restore the balance of bacteria in your digestive system. Research on specific probiotic strains has shown they can reduce cell damage from stomach viruses, block viruses from invading gut cells, and help regulate the immune response. Adding a serving of yogurt or kefir once your appetite returns is a simple way to support that recovery.