When you have stomach flu, the best things to eat are bland, easy-to-digest foods like bananas, rice, broth, boiled potatoes, and plain crackers. But timing matters just as much as food choice. Right after vomiting, give your stomach a break for a few hours before even sipping liquids. Once you can keep fluids down, you can gradually work your way back to simple solid foods.
Start With Fluids, Not Food
Your first priority is replacing lost water and electrolytes, not calories. After your last bout of vomiting, wait a few hours before reaching for anything. Then start with small, frequent sips rather than gulping a full glass. Ice chips, diluted juice, or an oral rehydration solution are good starting points.
Oral rehydration solutions contain about three times more sodium than a typical sports drink, which makes them better at replacing what you lose through vomiting and diarrhea. Sports drinks have more sugar and less sodium, so they’re a decent backup but not ideal. If you don’t have a rehydration solution on hand, clear broth works well. Bone broth in particular provides sodium (roughly 20 to 27 percent of your daily value per serving) along with about 10 grams of protein, giving your body amino acids that support gut repair while you rehydrate.
What to Eat Once You Can Keep Fluids Down
Once you’ve held down liquids for a few hours and your appetite starts returning, begin with small portions of bland food. The classic BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast) is a fine starting point for the first day or two, but there’s no reason to limit yourself to just those four foods. Harvard Health notes that a less restrictive approach makes more sense for recovery, since your body needs protein and a wider range of nutrients to heal.
Good options during the first couple of days include:
- Starches: Plain white rice, boiled potatoes, oatmeal, unsweetened dry cereal, saltine crackers
- Fruits: Bananas, applesauce, cooked or canned pears
- Soups: Chicken broth, vegetable broth, simple brothy soups with noodles or rice
- Proteins (when ready): Skinless chicken or turkey, plain scrambled eggs, baked fish
The key is keeping portions small. A few bites every hour or two is easier on your stomach than a full meal, even if you feel hungry.
When to Add More Nutritious Foods
Once your stomach has settled and you’re tolerating bland foods without nausea, start reintroducing more nutritious options. Cooked squash like butternut or pumpkin, cooked carrots, sweet potatoes without skin, and avocado all provide vitamins and calories without being harsh on your digestive system. These foods contain soluble fiber, which actually helps firm up loose stools by forming a gel that normalizes stool consistency in your intestines.
Bananas and applesauce are particularly useful because they’re rich in pectin, a type of soluble fiber found in many fruits and berries. Pectin retains water in the gut and helps move stool from liquid toward solid. You don’t need to eat large amounts for this to help.
Foods to Avoid During Recovery
Some foods will make your symptoms worse or slow your recovery. Dairy is the biggest one to watch. Viral gastroenteritis can temporarily damage the lining of your small intestine, reducing your ability to digest lactose (the sugar in milk). This temporary lactose intolerance typically lasts three to four weeks after the infection, even after your other symptoms clear up. During that window, milk, ice cream, and soft cheeses can trigger bloating, cramps, and more diarrhea.
Also avoid:
- Fatty or fried foods: They slow digestion and can trigger nausea
- Spicy foods: They irritate an already inflamed stomach lining
- Caffeine and alcohol: Both are dehydrating, which is the opposite of what you need
- Raw vegetables and high-fiber grains: Insoluble fiber like wheat bran can worsen diarrhea
- Sugary drinks and candy: High sugar concentrations can pull water into the intestines and make diarrhea worse
Probiotics Can Shorten Your Illness
Adding a probiotic during or after stomach flu may cut your recovery time. A large Cochrane review of multiple clinical trials found that probiotics reduced the average duration of diarrhea by about 30 hours. For rotavirus infections specifically, the reduction was even greater, around 38 hours. The strain with the strongest evidence is Lactobacillus GG, which you can find in certain yogurts (if you can tolerate dairy) and in supplement form.
Probiotics work best when started early in the illness. You can take them as capsules, or once you’re tolerating food, through fermented foods like miso soup, which doubles as a warm, salty, easy-to-digest option.
Signs You’re Getting Dehydrated
The biggest risk with stomach flu isn’t the virus itself. It’s dehydration from fluid loss. Dark yellow urine, dry mouth, dizziness when standing, and decreased urination are early warning signs that you need to drink more aggressively. In children and older adults, dehydration can escalate quickly.
Severe dehydration is a medical emergency. Confusion, fainting, no urination at all, rapid heartbeat, or rapid breathing all require immediate medical attention. If you’re vomiting so frequently that you can’t keep any fluids down for more than a few hours, that also warrants a call or visit, since you may need intravenous fluids to catch up.
A Simple Recovery Timeline
Most people can follow a rough progression over two to three days. In the first few hours after vomiting stops, stick to small sips of water, broth, or an oral rehydration solution. Once you’ve kept liquids down for a few hours, try a few bites of something bland like crackers, plain rice, or a banana. Over the next day or two, gradually increase portion size and variety, adding cooked vegetables, lean proteins, and easy-to-digest starches. By day three or four, most people can return to a relatively normal diet, though it’s wise to keep avoiding dairy, fried foods, and alcohol for a bit longer.
Recovery isn’t always linear. If a food triggers nausea or cramps, step back to simpler options and try again later. Your gut lining needs time to repair, and pushing too fast just extends the misery.