Bland, low-fiber foods like bananas, plain rice, applesauce, toast, and crackers are the safest choices when your stomach is upset. They’re easy to digest, unlikely to trigger more nausea, and gentle enough to eat even when nothing sounds appealing. But what you eat depends on where you are in your recovery, and jumping straight to solid food isn’t always the right move.
Start With Liquids, Not Food
If you’ve been vomiting, eating right away can make things worse. Give your stomach a break for a few hours first. When you’re ready, start with small sips of water every 15 minutes, or suck on ice chips if even sipping feels like too much.
Once water stays down, you can move to other clear liquids: clear broth, watered-down electrolyte drinks, ice pops, or plain gelatin. These replace lost fluids without asking your digestive system to do much work. Stay at this stage for a few hours before trying solid food. If you skip ahead too quickly, you risk triggering another round of vomiting.
The Best Bland Foods to Try First
Once liquids are staying down comfortably, ease into small amounts of soft, bland food. The classic recommendation is the BRAT diet: bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast. All four are low in fiber, soft, and unlikely to trigger nausea. Plain white rice is especially easy on the stomach because its starch converts into soluble fiber during digestion, which helps firm up loose stools. Bananas also replenish potassium, a mineral your body loses quickly during diarrhea or vomiting.
Beyond the BRAT staples, other good options include:
- Plain oatmeal (no butter, sugar, or milk)
- Saltine crackers
- Plain boiled potatoes
- Clear chicken or vegetable broth
- Steamed carrots or sweet potatoes
The common thread is simplicity. You want foods with minimal fat, minimal seasoning, and a soft texture. Toast should be plain white or gluten-free bread, not whole grain, which is harder to digest when your gut is inflamed. Keep portions small. A few bites at a time is fine. Your appetite will guide you as your stomach recovers.
Ginger and Peppermint for Nausea
Ginger is one of the most reliable natural remedies for nausea. Clinical trials consistently show it reduces both the severity and frequency of nausea, whether from surgery, pregnancy, or general stomach upset. You don’t need a supplement. Ginger tea, ginger chews, or even flat ginger ale (let it go flat first so the carbonation doesn’t irritate your stomach) can help settle things down.
Peppermint works through a different pathway but produces similar results. Peppermint tea is the easiest option. In clinical settings, even inhaling peppermint essential oil has been shown to significantly reduce nausea severity compared to no treatment. If tea sounds manageable, it’s worth trying early on, even before you’re ready for food.
Low-Acid Fruits and Vegetables
As your stomach starts to improve, you’ll want to reintroduce more nutritious foods. Stick to low-acid, high-water options that won’t spike your stomach acid or cause cramping. Good choices include melons, bananas, cucumbers, and cooked root vegetables like carrots, sweet potatoes, and beets. Cauliflower, green beans, and asparagus are also gentle picks. Watermelon and celery have high water content, which helps with hydration while being easy to digest.
Avoid citrus fruits, tomatoes, and raw onions until you’re feeling fully recovered. These are more acidic and can reignite heartburn or nausea in a sensitive stomach.
What to Avoid Until You Feel Better
Some foods actively work against a recovering stomach. Fatty foods slow digestion, leaving you feeling uncomfortably full and increasing pressure on the valve between your stomach and esophagus, which causes heartburn. Greasy takeout, fried food, and rich sauces are the worst offenders.
Spicy foods containing capsaicin can trigger indigestion and heartburn even in a healthy stomach. When your gut is already irritated, they’re almost guaranteed to make things worse. Dairy is another common problem. Milk actually stimulates your stomach to produce more acid, which can aggravate an already sensitive lining. Caffeine does the same, so skip the coffee and caffeinated tea for now. Alcohol directly inflames the stomach lining and should be avoided entirely until symptoms resolve.
Probiotics During Recovery
If your upset stomach involves diarrhea, probiotics may help shorten the episode. A large review of over 8,000 patients found that probiotics reduced the average duration of diarrhea by about 25 hours and cut the risk of it lasting four days or more by 59%. Yogurt with live active cultures (once you can tolerate dairy again), kefir, or a probiotic supplement are all options.
For the best results, start probiotics at the onset of symptoms and continue for one to two weeks after symptoms resolve. The evidence is strongest for bacterial causes of diarrhea. For viral stomach bugs, results are less consistent, but probiotics are generally safe and unlikely to make things worse.
Getting Back to Normal Eating
You don’t need to stay on a bland diet for long. One to two days is typically enough. Restricting your diet too aggressively for too long can actually slow recovery by depriving your body of the protein, fat, and calories it needs to heal. Once bland foods are sitting well, gradually reintroduce your regular diet. Add one food at a time so you can identify anything that triggers a setback.
For children, pediatric guidelines from the American College of Gastroenterology recommend returning to a normal diet as soon as possible. Breastfed infants should continue nursing throughout a stomach illness, and formula-fed infants can stay on their regular formula. Older children should be reintroduced to their usual foods quickly rather than kept on a prolonged restrictive diet.
Signs Your Upset Stomach Needs Medical Attention
Most stomach bugs and bouts of food-related nausea resolve within a day or two. But dehydration is a real risk, especially with prolonged vomiting or diarrhea. Watch for dark-colored urine, urinating much less than usual, extreme thirst, dizziness, or skin that doesn’t spring back quickly when you pinch it. In infants, warning signs include no wet diapers for three hours, no tears when crying, and a sunken soft spot on the skull.
Diarrhea lasting more than 24 hours, a fever above 102°F, bloody or black stool, inability to keep any fluids down, or unusual confusion or sleepiness all warrant a call to your doctor.