When a person reintroduces food after a bout of food poisoning, the goal is to eat foods that are easy to digest. A diet for an upset stomach typically contains bland, low-fat, low-fiber foods. One version of this is the BRAT diet.
Your gastrointestinal tract may need time to fully recover, and it can take as long as a week to get back to your normal appetite and digestion. Carbohydrates will be easier to digest in the initial phases of recovery. Avoid spicy or acidic foods, caffeinated beverages, and alcohol after food poisoning.
You should be able to start eating a more regular diet, including fruits and vegetables, within about 24 to 48 hours after vomiting or having diarrhea.
Avoid food for the first few hours as your stomach settles down. Drink water, broth, or an electrolyte solution, which will replace the minerals that you lose with vomiting and diarrhea. Eat when you feel ready, but start with small amounts of bland, nonfatty foods such as toast, rice, and crackers. Get plenty of rest.
Drink only small amounts of liquids at a time. Don't force yourself to eat, especially if you are having cramping, vomiting, or diarrhea. Don't eat large amounts at a time, even if you are hungry. If you eat, avoid fatty, greasy, spicy, or fried foods.
Once you are rehydrated and can keep down a bland diet, you can slowly introduce foods from your regular diet. The Infectious Disease Society of America recommends resuming a usual diet after rehydration. 4 You should eat small meals frequently, every three to four hours, rather than several large meals daily.
Resting Your Body
Simple rest is one way to help your body heal from food poisoning. Take it easy until you are feeling better. Additionally, do not eat or drink for a few hours after the onset of symptoms. Once you do start eating and drinking again, try gentle and bland foods, like crackers, and sports drinks.
Food poisoning symptoms can last a few hours to a few days. How long food poisoning lasts depends on which microorganism infected you. After you ingest contaminated food or beverage, it may take hours or days until you develop symptoms. Here are some time frames for common causes of food poisoning.
You may vomit after you eat or lose your appetite for a short time. When your appetite returns, you can most often go back to eating your normal diet, even if you still have diarrhea.
Soda crackers, toast, plain noodles, gelatin, eggs, applesauce, and bananas are good first choices. Avoid foods that are acidic, spicy, fatty, or fibrous (such as meats, coarse grains, vegetables). Also avoid dairy products. You may start eating these foods again in 3 days or so, when all signs of illness have passed.
Stomach flu can make eating and drinking less appealing. However, it is most important for a person to keep drinking fluids to help prevent dehydration. When ready for food, a person should eat bland foods such as bread, bananas, applesauce, and cooked starches.
Yogurt. You may have heard that it's best to avoid dairy during bouts of food poisoning. It is important to avoid sugar-laden yogurt, which may worsen symptoms. However, fermented foods like yogurt may be recommended after food poisoning to support gut health and help with diarrhea.
You can also drink noncaffeinated sodas, such as Sprite, 7UP or ginger ale. Take care to avoid caffeinated sodas, since caffeine can make your upset stomach worse. The carbonation from sodas inflates the stomach while increasing its internal pressure.
How do doctors treat food poisoning? To treat food poisoning caused by bacteria or parasites, your doctor may prescribe antibiotics link or medicines that target parasites, in addition to rehydration solutions. In some cases, doctors may recommend probiotics link.
Avoid fried, spicy, heavily seasoned or fatty foods (no junk food items!). Also try to stay away from caffeinated drinks, alcohol, dairy products, nicotine and fruit juices. Although fibre is a healthy nutrient, try to avoid fibrous foods when recovering from food poisoning, since this can put a strain on your stomach.
You should avoid solid foods and dairy products until the vomiting and diarrhea have passed. Once you are feeling better, ease into eating and drinking again. Try bland foods, such as crackers, toast, and bananas. Avoid spicy foods, fried foods, dairy, and foods that are high in fat and sugar.
Since most of the weight that comes off when you are sick is "water weight," it will likely come back when you are feeling better and eating and drinking again.
Most cases clear up without any problems but there are a few situations in which people experience a relapse. This means a reoccurrence of the symptoms or long term complications such as 'Guillain-Barre Syndrome'.
Foods should be bland, low in fat, and low in fiber. Because fat is harder for the stomach to digest, avoid fatty foods as much as possible. Foods that are easier on the stomach include cereal, bananas, egg whites, gelatin, oatmeal, plain potatoes, rice, crackers, toast, and applesauce.
Spicy or fatty food: These foods tend to aggravate sensitive stomachs under regular circumstances so consuming them now would just be asking for trouble. You should also rule out high fiber foods such as nuts, whole grains, citrus, and fruits with a peel. Foods high in fiber will put a strain on your stomach.
You may recover in a few days … or not
Most of the time, food poisoning will pass within 12 hours to 48 hours in healthy people. That's how long it takes for a healthy body to purge most foodborne infections. But your length of illness can vary based on several factors.
New research suggests that intermittent fasting can benefit your health in a way unrelated to weight loss. According to a team of researchers from Canada's University of British Columbia, fasting can prevent severe symptoms of food poisoning.
Since dairy products are less bland than BRAT foods, they might be more tough on your stomach. However, if you can tolerate yogurt, it might be good for your stomach, especially if it contains probiotics, which help with digestion. Plus, yogurt contains fluid, which helps to stay hydrated.