What to eat after food poisoning

Nausea, diarrhoea, vomiting, and abdominal discomfort can temporarily reduce appetite. The first priority is replacing fluid and salts; food can return in modest portions when tolerated. Food poisoning commonly presents with digestive symptoms, but appetite loss can also occur with other illnesses.

There is no single required diet. Your response is the guide: a food that causes cramping or looser stool can be paused and tried again later, while prolonged restriction may leave you low on energy.

Take frequent sips of water, clear soup, or oral rehydration solution. When ready, try rice, toast, potatoes, bananas, porridge, soup, yoghurt, or another familiar food that feels manageable. Add protein and a wider variety as appetite and stools improve. Avoid alcohol and temporarily limit very fatty, spicy, or heavily sweetened foods if they aggravate symptoms.

Oral rehydration therapy can help replace salts as well as water. If you cannot drink enough, a clinician may consider IV fluid therapy.

Seek urgent help for confusion, fainting, severe weakness, very little urine, inability to keep fluids down, blood or black stool, or severe abdominal pain. Arrange medical advice if diarrhoea or vomiting persists, fever is worsening, or the person is a young child, older adult, pregnant, or living with a condition that raises dehydration risk.

Which foods suit my symptoms and medicines? When should I use oral rehydration solution? What signs show that I need assessment for dehydration?