High fiber foods, by grams per realistic serving

Most high fiber foods cluster in five groups: legumes, whole grains, vegetables, fruit, and nuts and seeds. Legumes lead by a wide margin — a cup of cooked lentils carries about 16 grams, a cup of raspberries 8, a slice of whole wheat bread 2. Every number below is per realistic serving.

How much fiber the guidelines call for

The Dietary Reference Intakes set an Adequate Intake of 14 grams of fiber per 1,000 calories. For adults 19–50 that's roughly 38 grams a day for men and 25 for women; past 50 it drops to about 30 and 21. Nutrition Facts labels use one Daily Value for everyone — 28 grams, on a 2,000-calorie basis — so a package's "% DV" won't match any individual target exactly. For the full breakdown, see how much fiber per day the guidelines recommend.

The high fiber foods list, by grams per serving

Most rankings compare foods per 100 grams, which flatters things nobody eats 100 grams of — wheat bran, chia seeds, dried herbs — and buries the beans doing the real work at dinner. The list below uses servings people actually plate: a cup of cooked beans, one medium fruit, an ounce of nuts. The last column is fiber per 100 calories — what matters on a calorie budget. Fiber Tracker, a fiber tracking app for iPhone, keeps per-serving numbers like these in its food library, so a portion can be logged instead of worked out from a label.

Food	Serving	Group	Fiber (g)	Calories	Fiber per 100 cal
Navy beans	1 cup cooked	Legumes	19.1	255	7.5
Split peas	1 cup cooked	Legumes	16.3	231	7.1
Lentils	1 cup cooked	Legumes	15.6	230	6.8
Pinto beans	1 cup cooked	Legumes	15.4	245	6.3
Black beans	1 cup cooked	Legumes	15.0	227	6.6
Chickpeas	1 cup cooked	Legumes	12.5	269	4.6
Chia seeds	1 oz (2 tbsp)	Nuts & seeds	9.8	138	7.1
Green peas	1 cup cooked	Vegetables	8.8	134	6.6
Bulgur	1 cup cooked	Grains	8.2	151	5.4
Raspberries	1 cup	Fruit	8.0	64	12.5
Blackberries	1 cup	Fruit	7.6	62	12.3
Artichoke	1 medium, cooked	Vegetables	6.9	64	10.8
Avocado	½ medium	Fruit	6.7	160	4.2
Wheat bran	¼ cup	Grains	6.4	32	20.0
Whole wheat spaghetti	1 cup cooked	Grains	6.3	174	3.6
Pearled barley	1 cup cooked	Grains	6.0	193	3.1
Pear	1 medium, with skin	Fruit	5.5	101	5.4
Broccoli	1 cup cooked	Vegetables	5.1	55	9.3
Apple	1 medium, with skin	Fruit	4.4	95	4.6
Oatmeal	1 cup cooked	Grains	4.0	166	2.4
Ground flaxseed	2 tbsp	Nuts & seeds	3.8	75	5.1
Sweet potato	1 medium, with skin	Vegetables	3.8	103	3.7
Almonds	1 oz (23 nuts)	Nuts & seeds	3.5	164	2.1
Whole wheat bread	1 slice	Grains	2.0	81	2.5
Romaine lettuce	1 cup shredded	Vegetables	1.0	8	12.5

Values are USDA figures and vary a little by cultivar, brand, and cook time.

Legumes are the best sources of fiber per serving

Beans, peas, and lentils are the only foods that reach double digits in one ordinary serving. Navy beans sit near 19 grams a cooked cup; split peas, lentils, pinto and black beans land between 15 and 17; kidney beans about 11; chickpeas 12.5. They also carry both fiber types — soluble, fermented by gut bacteria, and insoluble, which adds bulk — a split covered in what dietary fiber actually does.

A full cup is a large portion; half a cup, closer to what most people serve, still delivers 6–8 grams — more than two slices of whole wheat bread. Canned beans hold roughly the same fiber as dried beans cooked at home; rinsing cuts sodium, not fiber.

High fiber grains: bran, bulgur, and barley beat bread

The spread inside this group is wider than the label "whole grain" suggests. Wheat bran is the outlier — about 6.4 grams in a quarter cup at roughly 30 calories, the steepest fiber-per-calorie ratio of any common food. Bulgur gives 8.2 grams a cooked cup, whole wheat pasta 6.3, pearled barley 6, quinoa 5.2, oatmeal 4. Brown rice trails at about 3.2 grams for a 218-calorie cup.

Bread is where the category loses its reputation. A slice of whole wheat bread carries roughly 2 grams, so a sandwich contributes 4. "Whole grain" describes the flour, not the fiber that survived milling; among high fiber grains, the grams line on the label is the only check that holds — anything under 3 grams a slice is ordinary bread with a better ingredient list.

Vegetables and fruit give the best fiber per calorie

Per calorie, produce wins outright. Raspberries hit 12.5 grams per 100 calories, blackberries 12.3, artichoke about 11, broccoli 9.3, Brussels sprouts about 7 — ratios no grain or nut approaches. Per serving they're moderate: a cup of raspberries is 8 grams, a medium artichoke 7, a cooked cup of broccoli 5.

Read the two columns together or the ranking misleads. Romaine lettuce also scores 12.5 grams per 100 calories, but a cup of shredded leaves holds 1 gram — the ratio is high only because the denominator is almost nothing.

Skins carry a large share of the total. A medium apple with the peel has about 4.4 grams, roughly half that peeled — the same pattern holds for pears and potatoes. Juicing discards nearly all of it; drying concentrates it, along with the sugar.

High fiber nuts and seeds worth keeping around

Seeds outclass nuts here. An ounce of chia seeds, about two tablespoons, carries close to 10 grams, enough of it gel-forming that the seeds thicken whatever liquid they sit in. Two tablespoons of ground flaxseed add about 3.8 grams; whole flaxseeds pass through largely intact, so grinding matters. Nuts are more modest — almonds 3.5 grams an ounce, pistachios and pecans near 3, walnuts about 2.

All run 160–190 calories an ounce, so among high fiber nuts and seeds the per-calorie numbers stay low: 2 or 3 grams per 100 calories, against 7 for lentils and 12 for berries.

Foods high in fiber by reputation only

• Lettuce, celery, cucumber. Mostly water. A medium celery stalk is under a gram.
• Whole wheat bread. About 2 grams a slice.
• Fruit juice. The fiber leaves with the pulp. A whole orange has roughly 3 grams; its juice, essentially none.
• Brown rice. 3.2 grams for 218 calories — fine, not high.
• "High fiber" bars and cereals. Some are genuine; many reach their number with isolated fibers such as inulin, polydextrose, or resistant maltodextrin. US labels only count an isolated or synthetic fiber toward the grams line if the FDA has recognized it as having a physiological benefit — real fiber, but a different material than what's in a bowl of beans.

Package claims follow percent-of-DV rules rather than fixed grams: "good source of fiber" means 10–19% of the Daily Value per serving, "high fiber" or "excellent source" means 20% or more. Against the 28-gram DV that's roughly 3 grams and 5.6 grams.

FAQ

What food has the most fiber per serving?

Cooked navy beans, at roughly 19 grams a cup, top the common-foods list, followed by split peas (16.3), lentils (15.6), pinto beans (15.4), and black beans (15). Wheat bran beats all of them per 100 grams, but a realistic quarter-cup serving comes to about 6.4 grams.

Which high fiber foods have the fewest calories?

Berries and non-starchy vegetables. Raspberries and blackberries deliver more than 12 grams of fiber per 100 calories, artichoke about 11, broccoli 9.3, Brussels sprouts about 7. Wheat bran is the only grain in that territory, near 20 grams per 100 calories.

Does cooking or peeling change how much fiber a food has?

Cooking softens fiber but removes little of it — a cooked cup often shows more than a raw cup because the food packs down. Peeling matters more: an apple loses roughly half its fiber once the skin comes off, and juicing strips out nearly all of it.

Are fiber supplements the same as fiber rich foods?

Not quite. Psyllium, methylcellulose, inulin, and wheat dextrin supply fiber and little else; fiber rich foods also bring potassium, folate, magnesium, and protein. Guidelines are written around whole foods, and supplements are generally treated as a top-up, not a replacement.

Why do beans have so much more fiber than vegetables?

Density. Beans are a concentrated seed — starch and cell-wall material with the water cooked out — so a cup weighs about 175 grams of mostly solids. Leafy greens are largely water, which is why they rank well per calorie yet still contribute barely a gram.