When you have diarrhoea, the best foods are bland, low-fibre, and easy to digest: white rice, bananas, plain toast, boiled potatoes, broth-based soups, and oatmeal. These give your gut a chance to recover without making things worse. What you avoid matters just as much as what you eat, and getting back to normal meals follows a predictable timeline once symptoms ease.
Start With Clear Liquids
Diarrhoea pulls water and minerals out of your body quickly, so replacing fluids is the first priority. Before you worry about solid food, focus on clear liquids: plain water, clear broths (bouillon or consommé), diluted apple or grape juice without pulp, ginger ale, plain gelatin, and ice lollies without fruit pulp. Tea and coffee are fine as long as you skip the milk. Sports drinks can help replace sodium and potassium, though plain water with salty broth on the side does the same job.
Avoid anything you can’t see through. That means no milk, no yoghurt, no thick juices like prune or orange with pulp. If you’re only managing sips, that’s fine for the first several hours. The goal is to keep fluid coming in steadily rather than drinking large amounts at once.
The Best Bland Foods
The classic BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast) has been the go-to advice for decades, and it still works as a starting point. But there’s no research showing it’s better than other bland options, and sticking only to those four foods for more than a day or two leaves you short on nutrients. A broader list of gentle foods gives you more to work with:
- White rice and plain pasta
- Bananas (ripe ones are especially high in potassium, which you lose through diarrhoea)
- Plain white toast or saltine crackers
- Boiled or baked potatoes without skin or butter
- Oatmeal made with water
- Brothy soups with soft vegetables
- Unsweetened dry cereal
- Applesauce (unsweetened)
These foods share a few traits: they’re low in fat, low in insoluble fibre, and unlikely to irritate an already inflamed gut lining. They also provide some calories and carbohydrates to keep your energy from bottoming out completely.
Why Fibre Type Matters
Not all fibre behaves the same way in your gut. Soluble fibre, found in oats, bananas, and peeled potatoes, absorbs water and forms a gel-like consistency during digestion. This actually slows things down and can help firm up loose stools. Insoluble fibre does the opposite. Found in wheat bran, raw vegetables, and whole grains, it speeds food through your system and adds bulk. That’s helpful when you’re constipated, but it’s the last thing you want during a bout of diarrhoea.
This is why white rice and white bread are better choices right now than brown rice or wholemeal toast. You’re temporarily choosing the less nutritious version because it’s gentler on your digestive tract.
Replacing Lost Electrolytes
Potassium is one of the minerals your body loses most during diarrhoea, and running low on it can leave you feeling weak and fatigued. Ripe bananas are the easiest source when your stomach is sensitive. As you start tolerating more food, potatoes, fish, and cooked chicken also help rebuild potassium stores. Salty broth and crackers take care of sodium. If you’re dealing with prolonged diarrhoea (more than a couple of days), an oral rehydration solution provides a more precise balance of electrolytes than water alone.
Foods That Make Diarrhoea Worse
Some foods and drinks actively pull more water into your intestines or stimulate your bowel to move faster. Avoiding them can make a noticeable difference in how quickly you recover.
Dairy. Even if you normally digest milk without problems, diarrhoea can temporarily damage the cells in your small intestine that produce lactase, the enzyme that breaks down lactose. Without enough lactase, undigested lactose sits in your gut, draws in extra water, and gets fermented by bacteria into gas. This temporary lactose intolerance typically resolves within three to four weeks after the gut lining heals, but during active diarrhoea, milk, ice cream, and soft cheeses are likely to make symptoms worse.
Sugar-free sweets and gum. Sugar alcohols like sorbitol and mannitol, commonly used as sweeteners in “no sugar added” products, are poorly absorbed by the intestine. They pull water into the gut through osmosis, essentially acting as a laxative. Check labels on sugar-free gum, mints, and diet drinks.
Caffeine. Coffee, strong tea, energy drinks, and cola can stimulate intestinal contractions and speed up transit time. If you rely on coffee, switching to a weak tea may be more tolerable.
Fatty and fried foods. High-fat meals are harder to digest under normal circumstances. When your gut is inflamed, greasy food can trigger cramping and urgency.
High-fibre vegetables and legumes. Raw salads, broccoli, cabbage, beans, and lentils produce gas during fermentation and contain insoluble fibre that speeds transit. Save these for after recovery.
Alcohol. It irritates the gut lining and acts as a diuretic, worsening dehydration.
Probiotics and Gut Recovery
Certain probiotic strains can shorten how long diarrhoea lasts, particularly when the cause is a stomach bug. The most studied strain is Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (often listed as LGG on labels). A meta-analysis of trials involving nearly 1,000 children with infectious diarrhoea found that LGG reduced the duration of symptoms by roughly one day on average, and by about two days when rotavirus was the cause. The effective threshold was at least 10 billion colony-forming units per day, taken for five to seven days and started as early as possible.
Most of this research has been done in children, and results in adults are less consistent. Still, a probiotic supplement or a food like kefir (if you can tolerate a small amount of dairy) is unlikely to do harm and may help your gut flora recover faster. Look for products that list specific strains and CFU counts on the label.
When to Add Normal Foods Back
Acute diarrhoea from food poisoning or a stomach virus usually lasts one to two days. Once you’ve had a formed stool or gone several hours without a watery episode, you can start broadening your diet. There’s no need to stay on bland foods longer than necessary.
The transition works best in stages. After the initial bland phase, add cooked vegetables like carrots, butternut squash, pumpkin, and sweet potatoes without skin. Lean proteins come next: skinless chicken or turkey, fish, and eggs. Avocado is another good early addition since it’s calorie-dense and easy on the stomach. Gradually reintroduce dairy in small amounts over the following week or two, watching for any bloating or return of loose stools that might signal your lactase production hasn’t fully recovered.
Hold off on raw vegetables, whole grains, spicy food, and fried food until your digestion feels fully normal. For most people, that takes three to five days after symptoms stop. If diarrhoea continues beyond a week, or if you notice blood in your stool, fever above 39°C, or signs of dehydration like dark urine and dizziness, those are signs that something beyond a simple stomach bug may be going on.