When you have diarrhea, stick to bland, low-fiber foods that are easy to digest: white rice, bananas, plain toast, boiled potatoes, broth-based soups, and applesauce are all safe starting points. The goal is to give your gut a rest while keeping calories and fluids coming in. Most bouts of diarrhea resolve within a few days, and what you eat during that window can make a real difference in how quickly you recover.
Beyond the BRAT Diet
You’ve probably heard of the BRAT diet: bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast. It’s been the go-to recommendation for decades, and those four foods are still fine choices. But there’s no research showing that limiting yourself to only those four foods works better than a broader bland diet. Harvard Health notes that a less restrictive approach makes more sense, since your body needs protein and other nutrients to recover.
A fuller list of foods that are gentle on your stomach includes:
- Starches: white rice, boiled potatoes, plain crackers, refined pasta, oatmeal, cream of wheat
- Fruits: bananas, applesauce, canned fruit, melon
- Proteins: skinless chicken or turkey, white fish, eggs, tofu, creamy peanut butter
- Soups: broth-based soups (chicken broth, vegetable broth)
- Vegetables: cooked carrots, cooked squash, sweet potatoes without skin
- Snacks: graham crackers, vanilla wafers, plain gelatin, popsicles
These foods share a few things in common: they’re low in fat, low in insoluble fiber, and unlikely to irritate your digestive tract. They also provide more balanced nutrition than plain rice and bananas alone, which matters if your diarrhea lasts more than a day.
Why Hydration Matters More Than Food
Diarrhea pulls water and electrolytes out of your body fast. Dehydration is the main risk, not hunger. Drinking plain water helps, but it doesn’t replace the sodium and potassium you’re losing. That’s why oral rehydration solutions work better than water alone for moderate fluid loss.
You can make a simple version at home using the World Health Organization’s formula: mix half a teaspoon of salt and two tablespoons of sugar into about four cups of water. The sugar isn’t just for taste. Your intestines absorb water more efficiently when glucose and sodium are present together, so this combination pulls fluid into your body faster than water on its own.
Other good fluid options include clear broths, diluted fruit juice, weak tea, and commercial electrolyte drinks. Sip steadily throughout the day rather than drinking large amounts at once, which can trigger more cramping.
Foods and Drinks to Avoid
Some foods actively make diarrhea worse by drawing extra water into your intestines or speeding up digestion.
Sugar and fructose are common culprits. Sugars stimulate your gut to release water and electrolytes, loosening stools further. Fructose is especially problematic. People who consume more than 40 to 80 grams of fructose per day often develop diarrhea even when they’re healthy. Fruit juice, soda, candy, and foods sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup all fall into this category.
Dairy products contain lactose, a milk sugar that many people struggle to digest. Even if you’re not normally lactose intolerant, a bout of diarrhea can temporarily damage the lining of your small intestine, reducing your ability to break down lactose. This can create a cycle where dairy keeps the diarrhea going. Low-fat yogurt is sometimes an exception because the fermentation process breaks down some of the lactose.
Caffeine speeds up your digestive system, which is the opposite of what you want. Skip coffee, energy drinks, and strong tea until things settle down. Greasy, fried, or heavily spiced foods are also worth avoiding since they’re harder to digest and can irritate an already inflamed gut. Alcohol, raw vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and seeds should wait until you’ve recovered.
Soluble Fiber Can Help
Not all fiber is the same when it comes to diarrhea. Soluble fiber dissolves in water and forms a gel-like material in your stomach, which slows digestion and absorbs excess liquid in your intestines. This can help firm up watery stools. Good sources include oatmeal, bananas, applesauce, and peeled potatoes.
Insoluble fiber does the opposite. It doesn’t dissolve in water and speeds up the movement of material through your digestive system. Whole wheat bread, raw vegetables, bran, and the skins of fruits and vegetables are high in insoluble fiber and can make diarrhea worse. This is why white rice and refined bread are recommended over their whole-grain versions during a bout of diarrhea.
Probiotics May Shorten Recovery
Probiotics, the beneficial bacteria found in fermented foods and supplements, have solid evidence behind them for diarrhea. A large meta-analysis published in The Lancet found that probiotics reduced the risk of acute diarrhea by 34% overall, with even stronger effects for antibiotic-associated diarrhea (52% risk reduction) and in children (57% risk reduction). The effect in adults was more modest but still meaningful, around a 26% reduction.
Several well-studied strains performed similarly, so you don’t need to hunt for one specific product. If you want to try probiotics during a diarrheal episode, look for supplements or foods like plain yogurt or kefir (if you tolerate dairy) that contain live active cultures. They won’t cure diarrhea on their own, but they can help restore the balance of bacteria in your gut and potentially shorten how long symptoms last.
When and How to Return to Normal Eating
A restricted bland diet shouldn’t last more than one to two days. Staying on it longer means you’re missing out on the nutrients your body needs to heal. As your stools begin to firm up and cramping eases, start adding foods back gradually. Cooked vegetables, lean proteins like chicken and fish, avocado, and eggs are good next steps because they’re easy to digest but nutritionally dense.
Reintroduce one or two new foods per meal so you can identify anything that triggers a setback. Most people can return to their normal diet within three to five days of a typical stomach bug. If you find that a specific food consistently brings symptoms back, leave it out for another few days before trying again.
Signs That Need Medical Attention
Dietary changes are enough for most cases of acute diarrhea, but some situations call for professional help. For adults, seek care if diarrhea lasts more than two days without improvement, if you develop a fever above 102°F, or if you see blood or black coloring in your stools. Signs of dehydration that warrant attention include excessive thirst, very dark urine, little or no urination, dizziness, and severe weakness.
For children, the timeline is shorter. Diarrhea that doesn’t improve within 24 hours, no wet diaper for three or more hours, a fever over 102°F, or unusual drowsiness all warrant a call to the pediatrician. Children dehydrate faster than adults, and the signs can be subtler: sunken eyes, a sunken soft spot on an infant’s head, or skin that stays pinched rather than flattening back when you release it.