The best foods to eat during diarrhea are bland, low-fat, and easy to digest: plain white rice, bananas, toast, boiled potatoes, plain chicken breast, and broth-based soups. These foods provide calories and nutrients without further irritating your gut. But what you eat matters less than two bigger priorities: staying hydrated and returning to a normal diet as soon as you can tolerate it.
Why the BRAT Diet Is a Starting Point, Not a Plan
You’ve probably heard of the BRAT diet: bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast. These four foods are gentle on an irritated digestive system, and they’re fine to lean on when you’re at your sickest. But the BRAT diet is no longer recommended as a strict protocol. It lacks calcium, vitamin B12, protein, and fiber, all of which your body needs to recover. The American Academy of Pediatrics specifically advises against restricting children to the BRAT diet for more than 24 hours, noting it can actually slow recovery.
Think of BRAT foods as a safety net for the first day or so, not a multi-day meal plan. As soon as you can tolerate more variety, start adding other foods back in.
Foods That Help Firm Up Stool
Soluble fiber is your best friend during a bout of diarrhea. It dissolves in water and forms a gel-like material in your stomach, slowing digestion and absorbing excess liquid in the intestines. That helps transform loose, watery stool into something more solid. Good sources of soluble fiber include oats, bananas, applesauce, carrots, barley, and peeled white potatoes.
Insoluble fiber, on the other hand, speeds things up and can make diarrhea worse. So skip raw vegetables, whole wheat bread, bran, and nuts until your symptoms settle. Stick to cooked, peeled, or soft versions of fruits and vegetables when possible.
Good Protein Sources During Diarrhea
Your body still needs protein to heal, but the wrong types can make things worse. Fatty, greasy, and heavily seasoned meats are hard on an already irritated gut. Fried chicken, bacon, sausage, hot dogs, and deli meats like bologna or salami should all wait until you’ve recovered.
Instead, go for plain, simply prepared options:
- Skinless baked or boiled chicken
- Steamed or poached fish
- Scrambled eggs
- Smooth peanut butter (in small amounts)
Keep added fats low. Limit oil, butter, cream, and mayonnaise to small amounts, roughly 8 teaspoons total per day or less.
What to Avoid Until You’ve Recovered
Certain foods pull extra water into the intestines or speed up gut motility, both of which worsen diarrhea. The main categories to cut out temporarily:
- High-fat foods: fried foods, pizza, fast food, creamy sauces
- Dairy with lactose: whole milk, cream, sour cream, ice cream, most cheeses. Your ability to digest lactose can be impaired for up to a month after a diarrheal illness, even if you normally tolerate dairy fine. Yogurt and lactose-free milk are usually okay.
- High-sugar foods and drinks: fruit juices, candy, sweetened beverages, and packaged desserts. Fructose and other simple sugars draw water into the intestines and make loose stools worse.
- Sugar alcohols: sorbitol and similar sweeteners found in sugar-free gum, candies, and some “diet” products can cause gas, bloating, and diarrhea on their own.
- Caffeine and alcohol: both increase fluid loss and can irritate the gut lining.
- Spicy or heavily seasoned food: these can further inflame an already sensitive digestive tract.
Hydration Matters More Than Food
Dehydration is the most immediate danger from diarrhea, especially in children and older adults. Every loose stool flushes out water and electrolytes (sodium, potassium, chloride), and replacing those is more urgent than eating solid food.
Water alone isn’t enough because it doesn’t replace lost electrolytes. A simple homemade rehydration drink works well: combine 4 cups of water, half a teaspoon of table salt, and 2 tablespoons of sugar. The sugar helps your intestines absorb the sodium and water more efficiently. Sip it steadily throughout the day rather than gulping large amounts at once.
Commercial options like Pedialyte are designed for rehydration and contain sodium, chloride, and potassium. They work for adults too, not just children. Sports drinks like Gatorade are less ideal. A 12-ounce serving of Gatorade contains over 20 grams of added sugar, which is more than half the recommended daily amount. That sugar load can actually worsen diarrhea by pulling more water into the intestines. If sports drinks are all you have, dilute them with an equal amount of water.
Broth-based soups are another good option because they deliver both fluid and sodium in a form that’s easy to keep down.
Probiotics Can Shorten Recovery
Certain probiotic strains can reduce the duration of infectious diarrhea by roughly one day. The strains with the strongest evidence are Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (often labeled LGG) and a beneficial yeast called Saccharomyces boulardii. You can find both in supplement form at most pharmacies. Some yogurts contain LGG as well, though the dose is lower than what was used in clinical studies.
The evidence is strongest for diarrhea caused by infections (stomach bugs, food poisoning). For diarrhea triggered by antibiotics, these same strains have shown some benefit, though results are more mixed. Probiotics are not a replacement for rehydration, but they can be a useful addition.
A Sample Day of Eating
Putting it all together, a reasonable day of eating during diarrhea might look like this:
- Breakfast: plain oatmeal made with water or lactose-free milk, a banana
- Mid-morning: sips of rehydration solution, a few saltine crackers
- Lunch: chicken broth with white rice, a small portion of boiled chicken
- Afternoon: applesauce, more fluids
- Dinner: baked fish with steamed carrots, plain toast
This gives you soluble fiber, lean protein, carbohydrates for energy, and electrolytes from the broth. It’s far more nutritionally complete than strict BRAT while still being gentle.
Returning to Your Normal Diet
Once your stools start forming normally again, you can begin reintroducing your regular foods. Add things back gradually over two to three days rather than jumping straight into a heavy meal. Dairy is the one category that deserves extra patience. Diarrheal illness can temporarily reduce your gut’s ability to break down lactose, and this effect can linger for up to a month. If milk or cheese triggers cramping or loose stools after you’ve otherwise recovered, switch to lactose-free versions for a few weeks and try again later.
Fatty foods should also come back slowly. Start with moderate portions of healthy fats like olive oil or avocado before returning to fried or greasy foods. Your gut lining may still be healing even after the diarrhea stops, and high-fat meals are the hardest to digest.