What Should You Eat When Feeling Nauseous?

October 24, 2025 •

4 min read

According to Healthline, about 50% of adults experience nausea at some point each year, a common and unpleasant sensation that can severely disrupt your appetite. Knowing what should you eat when feeling nauseous is key to soothing your stomach, maintaining your energy, and promoting a quicker recovery.

Quick Summary

This guide covers the best bland, starchy, and hydrating foods to consume when nauseous, and which items to avoid. Learn how ginger and peppermint can provide relief, and get practical tips on eating small meals and proper hydration to settle an upset stomach.

Key Points

Start with bland foods: Stick to a diet of easy-to-digest items like crackers, toast, bananas, and plain rice to soothe your stomach.
Prioritize hydration: Sip clear liquids such as water, clear broth, and electrolyte drinks throughout the day to prevent dehydration, especially if you have been vomiting.
Eat small, frequent meals: Avoid overwhelming your digestive system with large meals. Instead, eat small portions every few hours to keep your stomach from becoming completely empty.
Use natural remedies: Incorporate ginger (tea, lozenges) or peppermint (tea, candy) to help settle your stomach naturally. Ginger specifically helps promote gastric emptying.
Avoid irritating foods: Steer clear of greasy, spicy, acidic, and very sweet foods, as these can exacerbate nausea and delay recovery.
Manage eating habits: Sit upright after eating and avoid strong food odors to minimize triggers. Eat and drink slowly to aid digestion.

The Importance of Eating When Nauseous

While the last thing you may want to do when feeling queasy is eat, having an empty stomach can actually worsen the sensation of nausea. Consuming small, gentle meals helps prevent stomach acid buildup and provides the necessary energy for your body to recover. Starting with bland, easily digestible foods is the most effective approach, allowing you to stay nourished without overwhelming your digestive system. Hydration is also paramount, especially if you've been vomiting, to replace lost fluids and electrolytes. The key is to reintroduce food slowly and deliberately, focusing on what your body can tolerate.

Soothing Foods to Settle Your Stomach

When nausea strikes, the goal is to choose foods that are gentle on your digestive tract and unlikely to trigger further discomfort. A diet rich in bland, starchy, and low-fiber options is often recommended.

Bland and Starchy Foods

The BRAT Diet: An acronym for Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, and Toast, this diet is a time-tested recommendation for calming an upset stomach. These low-fiber foods are easy to digest and can help firm stools if diarrhea is also present.
Crackers and Pretzels: Saltine crackers, pretzels, and plain toast are dry, salty, and have a minimal odor, making them ideal for morning sickness or motion sickness.
Plain Starches: Simple boiled potatoes (skin removed), plain noodles, oatmeal, and cream of wheat are also excellent choices for providing calories and absorbing stomach acid.
Protein-Rich Options: Once your stomach has settled, bland proteins like baked or grilled skinless chicken, tofu, or cottage cheese can be introduced. These provide essential nutrients without the heavy fats of fried food.

Hydrating Fluids

Water and Ice Chips: Sipping small amounts of cold water throughout the day is the best way to stay hydrated. Sucking on ice chips or popsicles can also be very soothing.
Clear Broth: Clear vegetable or chicken broth provides warmth, hydration, and replaces lost sodium without taxing your digestion.
Ginger Ale and Herbal Tea: Flat ginger ale and herbal teas like ginger or peppermint tea are known for their anti-nausea properties. Johns Hopkins Medicine notes that ginger can encourage faster stomach emptying, providing relief.
Electrolyte Drinks: For more severe cases of vomiting, sports drinks or coconut water can help replenish crucial electrolytes lost.

Foods and Habits to Avoid

Just as some foods can help, others can make nausea worse. Avoiding these items and habits can be just as important for relief.

Problematic Foods

Greasy and Fried Foods: High-fat and greasy foods, like french fries, can be difficult to digest and may delay stomach emptying, exacerbating nausea.
Spicy and Acidic Foods: Hot, spicy seasonings, and acidic fruits like citrus can irritate the stomach lining and should be avoided.
Overly Sweet Foods: While a sweet craving might strike, very sugary foods and candies can worsen nausea.
Strong Odors: The smell of hot food can be a major trigger for nausea. Opt for cooler, milder-smelling foods instead.

Poor Eating Habits

Large Meals: Overfilling your stomach can easily trigger nausea. Stick to small, frequent meals every one to two hours instead of three large ones.
Mixing Liquids and Solids: Drinking large amounts of liquid with a meal can make you feel full and trigger nausea. Sip liquids slowly between meals instead.
Lying Down After Eating: Lying flat after a meal can put pressure on your stomach and worsen nausea. Sit upright for at least an hour after eating.

The Ginger and Peppermint Comparison

When seeking natural relief, ginger and peppermint are two of the most popular remedies. While both are effective for many people, their mechanisms of action differ slightly. A comparison can help you decide which to try.


Feature	Ginger	Peppermint
Mechanism	Contains bioactive compounds (gingerol, shogaol) that interact with the central nervous system and stomach to encourage faster gastric emptying.	Contains compounds that help relax the stomach muscles, easing discomfort and reducing spasms.
Scientific Evidence	Well-documented effectiveness for a range of nausea causes, including motion sickness, chemotherapy, and pregnancy.	Some studies support its effectiveness, particularly when used in aromatherapy. Anecdotal evidence is strong.
Best Forms	Tea, capsules, lozenges, crystallized ginger, or fresh ginger grated into food.	Tea, hard candies, or aromatherapy with peppermint oil.
Known Side Effects	Generally safe, but high doses may cause heartburn or stomach pain in some.	Can worsen acid reflux in some individuals due to muscle relaxation.

When to Contact a Doctor

For most short-term bouts of nausea, dietary changes and at-home care are sufficient. However, if your nausea is severe, persistent, or accompanied by other serious symptoms, it's crucial to seek medical advice.

Contact a healthcare provider if you experience:

Nausea and vomiting lasting more than two days.
Signs of dehydration, such as excessive thirst, dry mouth, or dark urine.
Vomit that contains blood or resembles coffee grounds.
Severe abdominal pain, chest pain, or a stiff neck.
Unexplained weight loss.

Conclusion

Navigating nausea requires a careful approach to nutrition, starting with simple, bland foods and clear, hydrating liquids. Embracing a diet of easy-to-digest starches like those in the BRAT diet, while avoiding greasy and spicy meals, can significantly reduce discomfort. Remember to stay properly hydrated by sipping fluids slowly throughout the day. Natural remedies like ginger and peppermint can provide additional relief, but it's important to listen to your body and find what works best for you. By making these mindful dietary adjustments, you can help your digestive system calm down and recover more quickly. For more details on the health benefits of ginger, you can visit the Johns Hopkins Medicine website.

Frequently Asked Questions

An empty stomach can increase nausea because stomach acids have nothing to digest, which can lead to irritation of the stomach lining. Eating small, bland snacks helps absorb these acids and reduces the feeling of queasiness.

While the BRAT diet (Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, Toast) is helpful for short-term nausea and upset stomach due to its blandness, it's considered overly restrictive for long-term use. Experts now recommend adding other bland, easily digestible foods and proteins as soon as they can be tolerated.

Yes, research indicates that ginger is a safe and effective treatment for morning sickness and other types of nausea, including during pregnancy. It can be consumed as tea, lozenges, or added to food.

Many people find that cold or room-temperature foods are easier to tolerate when nauseous. This is because hot foods release stronger odors, which can trigger or worsen the feeling of nausea.

Clear liquids are the best choice. This includes water, clear broth, oral rehydration solutions, and sports drinks. Avoid overly sugary or caffeinated beverages, which can worsen dehydration.

If cooking odors trigger your nausea, try to have someone else cook for you or prepare meals that don't have strong smells. Eating cool or pre-prepared foods can also help. Ensure the eating area is well-ventilated.

You should seek medical attention if vomiting lasts more than two days, if you show signs of dehydration, or if nausea is accompanied by severe symptoms like chest pain, severe abdominal pain, or a high fever.