When you have diarrhea, the best foods are bland, easy to digest, and rich in soluble fiber: bananas, white rice, oatmeal, plain toast, boiled potatoes, and lean chicken or fish. These foods help firm up loose stools without irritating your gut. Most acute diarrhea lasts one to two days and resolves on its own, but what you eat during that window can shorten your recovery and prevent dehydration.
Why the BRAT Diet Isn’t Enough
You’ve probably heard of the BRAT diet: bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast. It’s been a go-to recommendation for decades, but no clinical trials have ever confirmed it works. A review from the University of Virginia School of Medicine found the BRAT diet lacks adequate energy, protein, fat, fiber, and several critical micronutrients. Sticking to it for more than a day or two can actually slow your recovery and, in children, lead to malnutrition.
The outdated thinking behind BRAT was that resting the gut would reduce stool output. Clinical trials have since shown the opposite: refeeding with a balanced diet immediately after rehydration leads to lower stool output, shorter illness, and better nutritional outcomes compared to gradual food reintroduction. The takeaway is simple. Use BRAT foods as a starting point, not as your entire diet.
Best Foods to Eat
Focus on foods that are gentle on the stomach and provide the nutrients your body needs to recover. Soluble fiber is your friend here. It dissolves in water and forms a gel-like material in the stomach that slows digestion and absorbs excess fluid in the intestines, helping solidify loose stools. Good sources include oatmeal, bananas, applesauce, white rice, and peeled potatoes.
Beyond soluble fiber, aim for a mix of easy-to-digest proteins and simple carbohydrates:
- Starches: White rice, white bread or toast, plain crackers, boiled or mashed potatoes
- Proteins: Skinless chicken breast, baked or steamed fish, scrambled eggs
- Fruits: Ripe bananas, applesauce, canned peaches (in juice, not syrup)
- Vegetables: Cooked carrots, peeled zucchini, green beans (all cooked soft, not raw)
Eating smaller, more frequent meals is easier on your digestive system than three large ones. If even bland food feels like too much at first, start with broth, plain crackers, or a few bites of banana and work up from there.
Replacing Lost Electrolytes
Diarrhea flushes out minerals your body depends on, especially potassium. Low potassium leaves you feeling weak and fatigued on top of already feeling lousy. Ripe bananas are the classic fix, but you can also get potassium from boiled potatoes, apricot or peach nectar, fish, and lean meat.
For fluids, water alone isn’t ideal because it doesn’t replace sodium or other electrolytes. Alternate water with clear broth, diluted fruit juice, or an oral rehydration solution. Sports drinks work in a pinch, though they tend to be high in sugar. Popsicles made from fruit juice are another option, especially for children who resist drinking fluids. Sip steadily throughout the day rather than gulping large amounts at once, which can trigger more cramping.
Foods and Drinks to Avoid
Some foods actively make diarrhea worse by pulling water into your intestines or speeding up gut motility. Steer clear of these until you’re fully recovered:
- Fried and fatty foods: When fat isn’t absorbed properly in the small intestine, it reaches the colon and gets broken down into fatty acids. These fatty acids cause the colon to secrete fluid, which worsens diarrhea. Skip the greasy takeout, creamy sauces, and butter-heavy dishes.
- Dairy: Many people temporarily lose the ability to digest lactose during a bout of diarrhea because the enzyme that breaks it down gets depleted. Milk, ice cream, and soft cheeses can make things worse. Plain yogurt is often tolerated better because fermentation has already broken down some of the lactose.
- Sugar alcohols and excess fructose: Sorbitol (found in sugar-free gum and candies) and large amounts of fructose (from apple juice, pears, or honey) draw water into the intestines through osmosis, producing even looser stools.
- Caffeine: Coffee and energy drinks accelerate colonic motility and increase bowel movement frequency. This is the last thing you need when your gut is already moving too fast.
- Alcohol: It irritates the gut lining and acts as a diuretic, compounding dehydration.
- Raw vegetables and high-fiber grains: Insoluble fiber from raw veggies, whole wheat, bran, and seeds speeds transit through the intestines. Save these for after recovery.
- Spicy foods: Capsaicin can irritate the lining of the digestive tract and worsen cramping.
Whether Probiotics Help
Certain probiotic strains can shorten the duration of acute diarrhea. The best-studied is a beneficial yeast called Saccharomyces boulardii. A meta-analysis published by the American Academy of Pediatrics found it reduced diarrhea duration by roughly 20 hours compared to placebo. By day three, people taking it were 59% less likely to still have diarrhea than those who weren’t.
You can find Saccharomyces boulardii in supplement form at most pharmacies. Yogurt with live active cultures provides other helpful bacteria, though the evidence for specific strains in yogurt is less robust. Probiotics aren’t a cure, but they can meaningfully speed recovery when combined with proper rehydration and nutrition.
Getting Back to Normal Eating
Most acute diarrhea resolves within one to two days. Once your stools start firming up, begin reintroducing a wider variety of foods gradually. There’s no need to follow a rigid timeline. Just pay attention to how your body responds.
Start by adding back cooked vegetables, soft fruits, and lean meats if you haven’t already. Then reintroduce dairy in small amounts, starting with yogurt or aged cheese (which are lower in lactose). Whole grains, raw vegetables, and higher-fat foods should come last, since these require the most digestive effort. If any food triggers a return of loose stools, back off and try again in another day.
For adults, diarrhea lasting more than two days, a fever above 102°F, blood or pus in the stool, black tarry stools, or signs of dehydration (dizziness, dark urine, dry mouth) all warrant a call to your doctor. For children, the threshold is lower: contact a provider if symptoms persist beyond 24 hours, and don’t wait at all for newborns or infants.