When you’re nauseous, the best things to eat are bland, soft foods that are low in fat and easy to digest. Think plain crackers, white rice, bananas, broth, and applesauce. These foods put minimal demand on your stomach and are far less likely to trigger vomiting than rich or heavily seasoned meals. What you avoid matters just as much as what you choose.
The Best Foods for an Upset Stomach
You’ve probably heard of the BRAT diet: bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast. Those four foods are genuinely easy on the stomach, but the CDC has noted that sticking only to BRAT foods is unnecessarily restrictive and provides suboptimal nutrition, especially if you’re eating this way for more than a day. A better approach is to use BRAT foods as a starting point and expand from there based on what you can tolerate.
Good options include:
- Plain crackers, white bread, or toast made with refined flour
- White rice or plain pasta
- Bananas, applesauce, and melon
- Broth and simple soups
- Boiled or baked potatoes without heavy toppings
- Eggs (scrambled or boiled)
- Plain gelatin or popsicles
- Hot cereals like cream of wheat
If you can handle more substance, lean proteins like baked chicken breast, steamed white fish, or tofu are worth trying. Research on morning sickness shows that protein actually reduces nausea more effectively than carbohydrates alone, so adding a small amount of lean protein to your crackers or toast can help settle your stomach faster than carbs by themselves.
How to Eat When Nothing Sounds Good
The size of your meals matters as much as what’s on the plate. Eating small amounts more frequently throughout the day puts less pressure on your digestive system than sitting down for a full meal. Three large meals are far harder on a queasy stomach than six small ones.
Chew slowly and thoroughly. Eating quickly forces your stomach to do more mechanical work, which can intensify nausea. Sipping fluids slowly rather than gulping them down also helps. If you’re vomiting, start with just an ounce or two of liquid at a time. Your body may feel thirsty and want more, but your stomach may not be ready for it yet.
Staying Hydrated Without Making It Worse
Dehydration is the biggest practical risk when nausea leads to vomiting, so getting fluids in is a priority. Start with clear liquids: water, diluted apple juice, or weak tea. Diluting juices slightly with extra water reduces the sugar concentration, which is easier on the stomach. Once you’re keeping clear fluids down consistently, you can try other drinks and transition to solid food.
Avoid drinking large volumes at once. Small, frequent sips are the strategy that works. Carbonated beverages, caffeine, and alcohol all irritate the stomach lining and can make nausea worse, so skip those until you’re feeling better.
Ginger: The One Remedy With Real Evidence
Ginger is one of the most studied natural remedies for nausea, and it genuinely works. The active compounds in ginger block serotonin signals on the nerve fibers that trigger the vomiting reflex. This is the same pathway targeted by prescription anti-nausea medications, though ginger works on a different binding site.
For pregnant women, clinical trials have used 250 mg of ginger root extract four times a day, up to 1 gram total per day. You don’t need capsules to benefit, though. Ginger tea, fresh ginger slices steeped in hot water, or even ginger chews can help. The key is getting enough of the actual root rather than ginger-flavored products that contain little real ginger. Most ginger ales, for instance, contain almost no ginger at all.
Peppermint Tea Can Help, With One Caveat
Peppermint relaxes the smooth muscle of the digestive tract by reducing calcium signaling in the gut wall. This calms the spasms and contractions that contribute to the sensation of nausea. A cup of peppermint tea is a simple way to get this effect.
The caveat: peppermint also relaxes the valve between your esophagus and stomach. If your nausea is related to acid reflux or heartburn, peppermint can make things worse by allowing stomach acid to travel upward. If you notice a burning sensation in your chest or throat after peppermint, switch to ginger instead.
Foods and Drinks to Avoid
Certain foods are reliably harder on a nauseous stomach. Fatty, greasy, and fried foods slow down gastric emptying, meaning food sits in your stomach longer and intensifies that heavy, sick feeling. Spicy foods irritate the stomach lining directly. Acidic foods like tomatoes and citrus fruits can do the same.
Strong smells are also a common trigger. Even foods you’d normally enjoy can become intolerable when you’re nauseous if they have a potent aroma. Cold or room-temperature foods tend to have less smell than hot foods, which is one reason crackers, bananas, and cold applesauce are easier to tolerate than a hot, fragrant meal. If cooking smells are getting to you, stick to foods that require no preparation.
High-fiber foods like raw vegetables, whole grains, and beans are also worth avoiding temporarily. Fiber requires more digestive effort, and your stomach isn’t up for that right now. Once the nausea passes, you can reintroduce these foods gradually.
What to Eat Based on the Cause
The best approach shifts slightly depending on why you’re nauseous. If you’re dealing with a stomach bug, hydration is the top priority. Start with clear fluids and work up to bland solids once you can keep liquids down for a few hours. If you’re experiencing morning sickness, keeping something in your stomach at all times helps. Many people find that eating a few plain crackers before getting out of bed in the morning prevents the worst of it, and adding small protein-rich snacks throughout the day is more effective than relying on carbs alone.
If your nausea is from medication, eating a small bland snack before taking your pills can buffer your stomach. Motion sickness responds well to ginger taken 30 minutes to an hour before travel. And if nausea follows a large or rich meal, giving your stomach a rest with just clear fluids for a few hours before trying bland foods is usually the fastest path to feeling better.