Dealing with gut trouble? You’re one of billions struggling with this issue. An astounding 40% of individuals worldwide grapple with digestive issues like upset stomach, stomach pain, constipation, and diarrhea.1
Even though digestive discomfort is as common as the day is long, remember – you’re not powerless. You can fine-tune your diet to reduce or prevent discomfort. Continue reading as we dive into the top 8 easiest foods to digest.
What Makes a Food Easy-To-Digest?
Before we reveal the most easily digestible foods, we’ll share what makes any given food item easy for your digestive system to handle.
Easy to digest foods usually boast one or more of these characteristics:
Other qualities of easy to digest foods include mild flavoring, low lactose, simple carbs, and high water content.
Some foods are much easier to break down than others. So, we urge you to add the top 8 easily-digestible foods below into your diet.
Bananas are equally delicious and gentle on the tummy – a major win if you want to give your GI tract a break. The fruit is low in fiber, soft in texture, and contains simple carbohydrates.4
Bananas are also a great source of pectin, which helps to soften stools and ward off constipation. In addition to that, green bananas are rich in resistant starch, a prebiotic that feeds good gut bacteria in your large intestine.5 For these reasons, you can rest assured that green bananas won’t give your digestive system trouble.
You can eat your green bananas right out of the peel or blend them up and add them to your go-to smoothie.
If you want to prevent or improve gut issues, try some white rice. Throw it in a pot and steam or boil it until it’s fluffy and soft. Then, eat it alone or as an accompaniment to lean cuts of meat, like skinless chicken breast, for an energy boost.
Wondering why white rice is so good for digestion?6 Much like bananas, cooked white rice is soft and relatively bland – it’s also a simple carb that’s low in fiber. According to the Cleveland Clinic, low fiber foods in this category can be helpful in cases of diarrhea, stomach cramping, and troublesome food digestion.7
Other refined grain products, like organic white bread and fortified cereals, are also helpful for gastrointestinal issues.
Applesauce (without added sugar or spices) is ideal for digestion because of its low insoluble fiber content. When apples are cooked down into a sauce, the insoluble fiber breaks down.
Applesauce also contains pectin, a special type of fiber known to improve digestion.8 Furthermore, its prebiotic properties make for easier digestion, giving your gut bacteria the nutrition they need to thrive.9
Applesauce alone can feel one-dimensional – pair it with white toast for a light, delicious meal.
If you’ve tried solid foods and your stomach won’t cooperate, skip the solids and go with a liquid like bone broth. It’s extremely soothing to your gut, and your body will process it very quickly.
It also has a lot of healthy nutrients, one of which is glutamic acid, an amino acid that turns into glutamine and helps to support your intestinal wall.10 It’s also believed to help with leaky gut.
You can buy it pre-made or slow-simmer your own bones, herbs, and raw vegetables for at least 12 hours. Enjoy it as a base for chicken soup (organic canned options are okay as a backup) paired with easy to digest, rice.
As a fermented food, yogurt can be highly beneficial for your gut. And it’s all because of its digestion-supporting probiotics.11
Before you worry about the lactose, remember that yogurt has fermented dairy – there’s less lactose in it than unfermented dairy.12 Plus, the bacteria in yogurt can help break down lactose.13 For those lactose sensitive individuals who want to give dairy yogurt a try, this can be a good option or simply use non-dairy yogurt made with coconut, almond, or oat milk.
Reach for plain, unsweetened yogurt fortified with live cultures and dress it up with soft fruits like bananas and peeled peaches. You can also switch your yogurt out for kefir, another source of fermented, low fat dairy.
Not all fiber is potentially harsh on the digestive system. Soluble fiber – the main fiber in oatmeal – is not.
The soluble fiber in oatmeal forms a jelly-like texture during digestion, which can reduce negative gastrointestinal symptoms. In addition, it contains iron, carbs, B vitamins, magnesium, and zinc, all of which can give you a sustained energy boost.14
Boil your oats in water until they’re soft and creamy. Then, top them off with soft fruits (skip the seeds if your stomach is sensitive to them).
Eating high fiber foods could seem counterproductive if you’re hoping for gentle digestion. But sweet potatoes are different. Not only do they have a soft texture, but they also have soluble fiber, which is known to foster bowel health, improved digestion, and regularity.
And, according to several scientific studies, these potatoes and other high-fiber diets have been linked to a lower risk of developing cancers of the colorectal system.15
For a quick meal, boil, microwave, or air fry your sweet potatoes with the skins removed. Pair them with a soft protein like chicken or salmon.
It can be hard to get sufficient dietary protein when protecting your digestive tract. But as long as you don’t have an egg allergy, boiled or poached eggs, which are high in lean protein, cause little digestive strain due to their low fiber and soft texture.
Note that if you do experience upset you may have an undiscovered egg allergy. Though you can eat both the egg white and the yolk, remember that the whites are lower in fat and therefore can be the easiest part of the egg to digest.16
They’re delicious alone but go well with white rice or white toast.
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You can choose all the right foods, but if they aren’t carefully prepared, digestive issues could quickly follow.
When selecting and prepping gut-friendly meals, keep the below information in mind:
Water-containing foods and liquids play a substantial role in how your digestive system breaks down food (from your mouth to your large intestine) and helps prevent constipation.17
Are you unsure whether you need to take it easy on your gut?
You may want to consider an easy-to-digest diet when you have one of the following conditions:
Note: If you have an upset stomach or suspect you may be suffering from one or more medical conditions, contact a healthcare professional, like your primary care physician (PCP) or a registered dietitian.
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Achieving healthy digestion from certain foods can be difficult as you age. You may need to alter your diet to avoid or limit hard to digest foods like:
All of the above foods can become harder to process internally as you enter advanced age.
To soothe an upset stomach, go with tummy-settling foods like saltine crackers, soup broth, bananas, applesauce, and white rice. In fact, the BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast)is recommended for an upset stomach. However, due to its lack of essential nutrients it’s likely only a good resource for no more than a few days.
The thought that foods can “clog” your gut is a myth. However, some foods can impede healthy gastrointestinal processing, make you feel crummy, or slow gut motility. Watch out for fried foods and anything fatty or processed (like hot dogs).
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