When your stomach is upset, the best things to eat are bland, low-fiber foods that require minimal digestive effort: plain white rice, bananas, scrambled eggs, toast, and broth. But just as important as what you eat is how you approach eating in stages, starting with liquids and working up to solid food as your stomach settles.
The old advice to follow a strict BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast) is outdated. The American Academy of Pediatrics no longer recommends it for children, and Cleveland Clinic advises against it for adults too, because those four foods alone lack the nutrients your body needs to recover. Sticking to only BRAT foods for more than 24 hours can actually slow healing. The better approach is to use those foods as a starting point, then expand to other gentle options as soon as you can tolerate them.
Start With Fluids, Then Add Food
If you’re actively nauseous or vomiting, solid food isn’t the priority. Small, frequent sips of liquid are. Water is fine, but if you’ve been vomiting or having diarrhea, you’re losing sodium and potassium along with fluid. Your gut absorbs water most efficiently when sodium and glucose are present in a 1:1 ratio, which is the principle behind oral rehydration solutions like Pedialyte. Sports drinks, diluted fruit juice, or clear broth also work in a pinch.
Once you can keep liquids down for a few hours without symptoms getting worse, try a small amount of solid food. Don’t force a full meal. A few bites of toast or a quarter of a banana is enough to test the waters. If that sits well, you can gradually increase the amount and variety over the next 12 to 24 hours.
Best Foods for a Sensitive Stomach
The goal is food that’s soft, low in fat, low in fiber, and unlikely to trigger acid production or cramping. These are the most reliable choices:
- White rice or plain pasta. White rice is easier to digest than brown rice precisely because the milling process strips away fiber. That’s normally a nutritional downside, but during a flare-up of digestive trouble, less fiber means less work for your gut.
- Bananas. Bananas contain pectin, a type of soluble fiber that helps firm up loose stool. Research on children with persistent diarrhea found that green banana and pectin reduced stool weight by about 50% by improving absorption in the small intestine. Bananas also replace potassium, an electrolyte you lose through vomiting and diarrhea.
- Plain toast or crackers. Simple starches that absorb stomach acid without adding fat or irritation.
- Scrambled eggs. Once you’re past the worst of the nausea, eggs are one of the best early proteins. They’re soft, easy to digest, and far more nutritious than toast alone.
- Skinless chicken or turkey. Lean, plain protein helps your body rebuild without the digestive burden of fat.
- Cooked vegetables. Steamed or boiled carrots, potatoes, or squash are gentle on the stomach. Avoid raw vegetables until you’re feeling closer to normal.
- Applesauce. Like bananas, it provides pectin and simple sugars without requiring much digestion.
- Broth or clear soup. Delivers fluid, sodium, and a small amount of calories in the easiest possible form.
As soon as you feel well enough to eat more, you should. Your body needs the calories and nutrients to recover fully, so don’t restrict yourself to bland food longer than necessary.
Drinks That Help Beyond Water
Peppermint tea is one of the most effective options for stomach cramps and bloating. Peppermint oil acts as an antispasmodic, relaxing the smooth muscle in your digestive tract and easing that tight, crampy feeling. You can drink it as tea or, for more targeted relief, take enteric-coated peppermint oil capsules.
Chamomile tea is another solid choice. Chamomile has anti-inflammatory compounds, particularly flavonoids, that help protect the stomach lining and reduce gastric irritation. It’s been used traditionally for stomach spasms, flatulence, and general stomach pain, and the pharmacological research backs up those uses.
Ginger tea or flat ginger ale (let the bubbles dissipate first) can help with nausea specifically. If you’re making ginger tea from fresh ginger, steep a few thin slices in hot water for five to ten minutes.
Foods and Drinks to Avoid
Some foods actively make an upset stomach worse, and knowing why can help you avoid setbacks.
Fatty and fried foods slow digestion significantly. When your stomach empties more slowly, you feel uncomfortably full, and the increased pressure on the valve between your stomach and esophagus can trigger heartburn on top of the nausea you’re already dealing with.
Dairy is a common trigger even for people who normally tolerate it fine. Milk stimulates the stomach to produce more acid, which can worsen irritation. If you have any degree of lactose intolerance (and many people do without realizing it), the undigested lactose will ferment in your gut, adding gas, bloating, and diarrhea to the mix.
Coffee and caffeinated drinks irritate the stomach lining, stimulate the GI tract to move contents through faster (causing cramping and diarrhea), and act as a diuretic that can worsen dehydration. Skip caffeine entirely until your stomach is back to normal.
Spicy foods, citrus, and alcohol all increase acid production or directly irritate inflamed tissue. Even if you usually eat spicy food without trouble, an already-irritated stomach lining can’t handle it.
Probiotics for Faster Recovery
If your upset stomach involves diarrhea, particularly from a stomach bug, probiotics can shorten the duration. The strain with the strongest evidence is Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (sold as LGG or Culturelle). A meta-analysis of seven trials involving 876 children with acute infectious diarrhea found that LGG reduced the duration of diarrhea by about one day on average, and by roughly two days for rotavirus infections specifically. It also cut the risk of diarrhea lasting longer than a week by 75%.
The effective dose is at least 10 billion colony-forming units (CFU) per day, taken for five to seven days. Most of the research is in children, but the mechanism applies to adults as well. Starting the probiotic as early as possible produces the best results. Look for a product that lists the specific strain and CFU count on the label.
How to Pace Your Recovery
Think of recovery in two phases. In the first phase, you’re managing symptoms: sipping fluids, nibbling plain starches, and letting your stomach rest. This might last anywhere from a few hours to a full day depending on the cause.
In the second phase, you’re rebuilding. This is when you add eggs, lean protein, cooked vegetables, and other nutritious but still gentle foods. Most people can return to their normal diet within two to three days of a typical stomach bug or episode of food-related upset. The key signal is your appetite. When food starts sounding appealing rather than revolting, your body is telling you it’s ready for more variety.
Eat small portions spread throughout the day rather than three large meals. A stomach that’s been through a rough patch handles frequent small amounts much better than a sudden large volume. And keep prioritizing fluids even after you’re eating normally again, especially if diarrhea was part of the picture. It takes longer to fully rehydrate than most people expect.