High-fiber foods list

The top legume on the list. Navy beans are the small white beans in baked beans and many white bean soups, and half a cup covers about a third of a woman's daily target.

Split peas cook down into a thick soup without soaking. A bowl made with a full cup of cooked split peas brings about 16 grams of fiber before you add a single vegetable.

Lentils need no soaking and cook faster than dried beans. They hold the most protein of the common legumes here, which makes them an easy base for bowls, soups and salads.

Black beans slide into tacos, burrito bowls, salads and eggs. Rinsing canned beans cuts some of the added sodium and keeps all of the fiber.

Chickpeas work whole in salads, roasted until crisp as a snack, or blended into hummus. Two tablespoons of hummus carry far less fiber than half a cup of chickpeas, so count the portion you actually eat.

The chili bean. Kidney beans hold their shape through long cooking, which makes them a good fit for chili, stews and big-batch meal prep.

Edamame are young soybeans, sold frozen in or out of the pod. They have less fiber than the dried legumes above but more protein than any of them, about 9 grams per half cup shelled.

An ounce of chia, about two tablespoons, has 9.8 grams of fiber, the most of any food on this list. Chia absorbs liquid and thickens as it sits, which is why it works in overnight oats and puddings.

Ground flax is a good addition, but it's not the fiber giant it's often made out to be. Two tablespoons of ground flaxseed have 3.8 grams, not the 8 grams you'll see quoted, because ground flax is light, about 7 grams a tablespoon. Grind it or buy it ground, since whole seeds can pass through undigested.

Nuts are respectable rather than remarkable. An ounce of almonds has 3.5 grams of fiber and an ounce of pistachios about 2.9, with 160-plus calories either way. They earn a spot for convenience, not volume.

Green peas are technically a legume, and their fiber shows it. A cup of cooked peas nearly matches a cup of raspberries, and a bag of frozen peas keeps for months.

Baked acorn squash delivers 9 grams of fiber a cup, more than almost any other vegetable here, for about 115 calories. Halve it, roast it cut side down, and it scoops out of the skin.

A whole cooked artichoke has 6.8 grams of fiber, still among the best vegetables per serving, though not the 10 grams often quoted. Canned or jarred hearts carry less, because you eat only the heart.

Broccoli is the reliable middle of the pack: about 5 grams a cooked cup, for 55 calories. It's on most meal prep menus for a reason.

Brussels sprouts bring 4 grams a cup. Roasting rather than boiling makes them far more likely to get eaten, and fiber you don't eat doesn't count.

A medium baked sweet potato has 3.8 grams of fiber in the flesh alone. Eat the skin too and you get a little more.

A cup of raw carrots has 3.6 grams of fiber. Baby carrots are the easiest high-fiber snack you can keep in a work fridge.

Almost nobody thinks of avocado as a fiber food. A medium avocado has about 9 grams, more than most fruits and vegetables and more than half a cup of most beans. It's also about 227 calories, so half an avocado is the usual serving.

A cup of raspberries has 8 grams of fiber for 64 calories, the best fiber-to-calorie ratio of any fruit on this list. Frozen raspberries count the same and cost less.

Blackberries are nearly identical to raspberries: 7.6 grams of fiber a cup. Either one turns a bowl of oatmeal into a double-digit fiber breakfast.

A medium pear with the skin has 5.5 grams of fiber, the most of the everyday tree fruits. Much of it sits in and just under the skin, so don't peel it.

A medium apple with the skin has 4.4 grams of fiber. Peeled, it drops to about 2.1 grams, so the skin holds roughly half.

Bananas are reliable but moderate at about 3 grams per medium fruit. They're fine to include, but berries and pears do more per serving.

A whole orange has 3.1 grams of fiber. A cup of orange juice has about half a gram. That gap is why the fruit-versus-juice difference matters more than most people assume.

Bulgur is cracked, parboiled wheat, and it's quietly exceptional: 8.2 grams of fiber per cooked cup, for fewer calories than rice. It cooks in about the time it takes to boil water and is the base of tabbouleh.

Even pearled barley, with its outer bran partly removed, has 6 grams of fiber a cup. Its chewy texture holds up in soups, stews and grain salads.

Quinoa has 5.2 grams of fiber and 8 grams of protein per cooked cup. It's a solid swap anywhere you'd serve rice.

A cup of cooked whole wheat pasta has 4.6 grams of fiber, not the 6 often quoted, but still several times what regular pasta offers. Pair it with beans or vegetables to push the meal higher.

Oats land at 4 grams per cooked cup, but they bring beta-glucan, a soluble fiber the FDA allows a heart health claim for at 3 grams a day. Add chia and berries and a bowl easily passes 12 grams.

Brown rice is modest at 3.2 grams per cup, about five times white rice. If fiber is the goal, bulgur, barley, quinoa and whole wheat pasta all beat it.

Bread deserves a note here too. Most "wheat" or "multigrain" breads are made mostly with refined flour and carry 1 to 2 grams a slice. Even 100% whole wheat bread averages about 1.9 grams a slice in USDA data, so check the label and look for "whole grain" or "100% whole wheat" as the first ingredient.