When you have diarrhea, the best foods are bland, easy to digest, and low in fat. Think plain rice, bananas, toast, boiled potatoes, plain oatmeal, and crackers. These foods are gentle on an irritated gut and help firm up loose stools without making things worse. The old advice to follow a strict BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast) has fallen out of favor because it’s too limited in nutrients, but those four foods are still solid choices as part of a wider bland diet.
Best Foods During Diarrhea
Your gut is inflamed and working overtime to push things through, so the goal is to eat foods that slow digestion down and add bulk to watery stool. Soluble fiber is your friend here. It dissolves in water and forms a gel-like material in the stomach that slows everything down, absorbs excess fluid, and firms up stool. Bananas, applesauce, oats, and carrots are all high in soluble fiber.
Good options include:
- White rice or plain oatmeal: easy to digest and binding
- Bananas: high in potassium (which you lose during diarrhea) and rich in pectin, a type of soluble fiber
- Plain toast or crackers: simple carbohydrates that won’t irritate the gut
- Boiled or baked potatoes (without butter or toppings)
- Applesauce: contains pectin and is easier to digest than raw apples
- Plain grits
- Broth-based soups: provide fluid, salt, and easy calories
- Lean chicken or turkey: plain and unseasoned, for protein
You don’t need to limit yourself to just four or five foods. The Cleveland Clinic notes that many soft, bland foods work well. The key is keeping meals simple: no heavy seasoning, no added fat, and nothing fried. Plain yogurt is also a reasonable choice because it contains live cultures that may support gut recovery, and the fermentation process breaks down much of the lactose that could otherwise cause problems.
Why the Strict BRAT Diet Is Outdated
For decades, doctors recommended eating only bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast until diarrhea resolved. That advice has changed. The American Academy of Pediatrics no longer recommends it for children because it lacks calcium, vitamin B12, protein, and adequate fiber. Following it for more than 24 hours may actually slow recovery in kids by depriving the gut of the nutrients it needs to heal.
For adults, a day or two of BRAT-style eating at the worst point of illness is fine, but you should branch out to other bland foods as soon as you can tolerate them. Complex carbohydrates, lean meats, fruits, and cooked vegetables all help your body recover faster than a handful of low-nutrient starches.
Foods and Drinks to Avoid
Some foods actively make diarrhea worse by pulling extra water into the intestines or speeding up gut contractions.
Caffeine has a laxative effect. More than two or three cups of coffee or tea per day can trigger or worsen diarrhea on its own, so cut back or switch to herbal tea or plain water while you’re recovering.
Dairy products are risky during a bout of diarrhea. Even if you normally digest milk fine, a temporarily inflamed gut may produce less lactase, the enzyme needed to break down lactose. Undigested lactose draws water into the intestines and can make things significantly worse. Stick to yogurt if you want dairy, since fermentation has already done some of the digestive work.
Sugar-free gum and candy contain sugar alcohols like sorbitol and mannitol. These are known laxatives even under normal circumstances. Your gut can’t absorb them well, so they pull water into the colon and amplify loose stools.
Fatty, fried, and spicy foods are harder to digest and can irritate the lining of the gut, making diarrhea more uncomfortable and prolonged. Alcohol falls into this category too, as it dehydrates you and irritates the digestive tract.
Hydration Matters More Than Food
The biggest risk from diarrhea isn’t the diarrhea itself. It’s dehydration. Every loose stool pulls water and electrolytes out of your body, and replacing them is more urgent than eating solid food. In the first several hours of acute illness (especially if vomiting is involved), focus on fluids before worrying about food at all. Start with ice chips or small sips of water, then move to clear liquids like broth, diluted apple juice, or an oral rehydration solution.
Signs of dehydration to watch for include dark urine, dry mouth, dizziness when standing, and skin that doesn’t bounce back quickly when you pinch it on the back of your hand. In infants and young children, a rapid heart rate and the skin-pinch test are particularly important warning signs.
A Practical Recovery Timeline
Recovery doesn’t happen all at once, and pushing solid food too early can set you back. Here’s a rough framework for how to phase food back in, though your body will tell you what it’s ready for.
In the first six hours or so, especially if nausea or vomiting is also present, stick to ice chips and small sips of water. Once those stay down comfortably, move to clear liquids: water, broth, flat (non-carbonated) juice, or popsicles. Avoid anything carbonated or opaque.
After about 24 hours, or once the worst has passed, start introducing bland solid foods. This is where bananas, rice, toast, plain oatmeal, and crackers come in. Eat small amounts and see how you feel before eating more.
As your stools start to firm up, gradually add more variety: cooked vegetables, lean protein, fruits. Continue avoiding fatty, fried, and spicy foods for several more days. Most people are back to their normal diet within about a week, though some find they need to hold off on rich or spicy meals a bit longer than that.
Probiotics During and After Diarrhea
Certain probiotic strains can help shorten the duration of diarrhea, particularly when it’s caused by antibiotics or an infection. The two most studied strains are a yeast called Saccharomyces boulardii and a bacterium called Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG. Multiple analyses have found these strains reduce the risk and duration of antibiotic-associated diarrhea, with higher doses generally being more effective.
You can get these from probiotic supplements or from fermented foods like yogurt and kefir. If you’re taking antibiotics and want to use a probiotic supplement, take it at least two hours apart from your antibiotic dose so the medication doesn’t immediately kill the beneficial organisms.
What to Feed Children With Diarrhea
The CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend that children continue eating their normal, age-appropriate diet during diarrhea rather than switching to a restrictive plan. That means complex carbohydrates, meats, yogurt, fruits, and vegetables are all fine. The BRAT diet is considered unnecessarily restrictive for kids and can provide suboptimal nutrition for a recovering gut.
The priority for children is preventing dehydration. An oral rehydration solution is preferable to plain water because it replaces the sodium and potassium lost in diarrhea. Fruit juice should be diluted, as the sugar content in full-strength juice can worsen loose stools. If a child has had diarrhea for more than 24 hours, can’t keep fluids down, has a fever of 102°F or higher, or has bloody or black stool, that warrants a call to their pediatrician.