What do you do when you have diarrhea but you are hungry?

Answer 1

The "BRAT" diet is recommended for toddlers and children who have vomiting and diarrhea; it is useful as well for teenagers and adults with upset digestive tracts.

BRAT stands for:

• bananas
• rice
• applesauce
• toast, no butter or extremely light butter

The BRAT diet has been proven to "rest" the stomach, using easy to tolerate foods. As well, each food has a "binding" effect which helps absorb the fluid of watery diarrhea. Within a few days, the stool becomes a little bit formed, with less runny diarrhea. Once the stool has begun to be more formed (and if there is no vomiting), the person can begin to eat normal meals.

The BRAT diet is easy to use. A banana for breakfast helps replace electrolytes plus firm up the stool. Avoid cereal and milk for at least several days since milk can cause some people problems. Do not use jams or jellies on the toast because those contain sugars which can be harder to digest and can affect blood sugar. Avoid putting vegetables with the rice since those are harder to digest when ill. And although dry toast doesn't sound too appetizing, your "gut" (tummy and intestines) will appreciate having the plain starchy food rather than a mixed meal. Dry toast with a warm cup of tea goes down easily and will help calm the stomach and slow the diarrhea.

Once the diarrhea has slowed, slowly add in regular foods until you feel well enough to eat normally. Remember that your body needs more fluids--not less--during diarrhea because of all the fluid being lost in the stool.

You can also use traditional over-the-counter anti-diarrheal preparations to slow diarrhea (example: Pepto-Bismal, the "pink stuff"), but remember to drink water with every dose or else you could push your body into constipation.