When your stomach is upset, the best foods are bland, low-fat, and easy to digest: think white rice, plain toast, bananas, applesauce, broth, and crackers. But you don’t need to limit yourself to just those few items. A wider range of gentle foods can keep you nourished while your gut recovers.
Start With Liquids First
If you’ve been vomiting, skip food entirely for a few hours and let your stomach rest. Then start with small sips of water every 15 minutes, or suck on ice chips. Once you can keep water down, move on to other clear liquids: plain broth, diluted electrolyte drinks, ginger ale, popsicles, gelatin, and weak tea. Pulp-free fruit juices like apple or grape juice also count as clear liquids.
Staying hydrated matters more than eating at this stage, especially if you’ve lost fluids through vomiting or diarrhea. You can make a simple rehydration drink at home: mix 4 cups of water with half a teaspoon of table salt and 2 tablespoons of sugar. This mimics the balance of electrolytes your body needs to absorb fluid effectively.
The BRAT Diet and Beyond
Once you’ve kept liquids down for a few hours, you can introduce solid food. The classic starting point is the BRAT diet: bananas, white rice, applesauce, and white toast. These foods are gentle on the stomach, low in fiber, and unlikely to trigger more nausea. It’s fine to stick with BRAT foods for a day or two, but there’s no reason to restrict yourself to only those four items.
Other foods that are equally easy to digest include:
- Plain oatmeal or cream of wheat
- Boiled or baked potatoes
- Saltine crackers, graham crackers, or vanilla wafers
- Brothy soups (chicken broth, vegetable broth, consommé)
- Unsweetened dry cereal
- Eggs (scrambled or boiled)
- Creamy peanut butter on toast
- Pudding, custard, or gelatin
- Tofu
Eat small amounts slowly rather than full-sized meals. More frequent mini-meals are easier on your stomach than three large ones.
Adding Nutrition as You Recover
BRAT foods are easy on your gut, but they lack the protein and nutrients your body needs to actually recover. As soon as your stomach has settled, typically within a day or two, start adding more nutritious options. Good next steps include cooked squash (butternut or pumpkin), cooked carrots, sweet potatoes without skin, avocado, skinless chicken or turkey, fish, and eggs. These are all bland enough to be gentle on your digestive system while delivering protein and vitamins that speed healing.
Low-fat or fat-free dairy is also an option for most people, though if your upset stomach involves diarrhea, dairy can sometimes make things worse temporarily. Lean meats like baked chicken breast or steamed whitefish are good protein sources as long as they’re prepared without added fat or heavy seasoning.
Ginger for Nausea
Ginger is one of the few natural remedies with real clinical evidence behind it. Studies have tested doses ranging from 170 mg to 1 gram taken three to four times daily, and a 1,000 mg dose has been shown to reduce nausea scores. You don’t need capsules to benefit. Ginger tea, ginger chews, flat ginger ale, or even smelling ginger essential oil can help settle nausea. If you’re using fresh ginger, a thumb-sized piece steeped in hot water makes a simple tea.
What to Avoid Until You Feel Better
Some foods are much harder for an irritated stomach to process. While you’re recovering, steer clear of:
- Fatty or fried foods: these slow digestion and can worsen nausea
- Spicy foods: they irritate the stomach lining
- Raw vegetables and high-fiber foods: harder to break down when your gut is inflamed
- Caffeine and alcohol: both can increase stomach acid and dehydrate you
- Citrus fruits and tomatoes: their acidity can aggravate symptoms, especially if reflux is involved
- Carbonated drinks: the bubbles can cause bloating and gas (flat ginger ale is a better choice than fizzy)
Rich, creamy, or heavily seasoned foods also tend to backfire. The general rule is simple: if it’s bland and soft, your stomach will probably tolerate it. If it’s greasy, acidic, or complex, save it for when you’re feeling normal again.
Probiotics and Diarrhea
If your upset stomach includes diarrhea, probiotics may help shorten how long it lasts. The strain with the strongest evidence is Saccharomyces boulardii, a beneficial yeast found in many over-the-counter probiotic supplements. In a review of trials involving over 2,400 participants, this strain reduced both the duration of diarrhea and stool frequency. It’s also been shown to cut the risk of antibiotic-associated diarrhea roughly in half. Look for it by name on supplement labels if diarrhea is your main symptom.
A Simple Recovery Timeline
Most people follow a natural progression without thinking about it too much, but having a rough timeline helps if you’re unsure when to try eating again.
In the first few hours after vomiting or the worst of your symptoms, stick to sips of water and ice chips. After you’ve kept water down for an hour or two, try other clear liquids like broth and diluted electrolyte drinks. Once clear liquids are staying down comfortably (usually a few hours later), introduce bland solids like toast, crackers, rice, or bananas in small portions. By day two or three, you can start broadening your diet to include lean proteins, cooked vegetables, and other soft, nutritious foods.
If you find that a particular food triggers nausea again, back up a step and return to liquids or the blandest options for a while longer. Recovery isn’t always linear, and your stomach will tell you what it’s ready for.