HomeDietary Fiber Total Dietary, Soluble and Insoluble Fiber Content of Foods: Vegetables, Fruits and Legumes
Total Dietary, Soluble and Insoluble Fiber Content of Foods: Vegetables, Fruits and Legumes
Total dietary fiber: refers to the total cell wall components in the plant. Dietary fiber is not digested by the endegenous enzymes in the intestine. Dietary fiber is known to have health benefits including against diabetes mellitus type II, constipation, cancer etc.
Soluble fiber: refers to the dietary fiber components that are soluble in water.
Insoluble fiber: refers to the dietary fiber components that are insoluble in water.
The following table contains a list of vegetables and legumes and an estimate of their total dietary fiber, soluble fiber and insoluble fiber content. The fiber content of the vegetables was estimated on fresh weight basis. It should be noted that fiber content of a vegetables varies owing to many factors: growth condition (climate, soil, etc), time of harvest, species, etc.
The following tables have lists of fruits and vegetables ordered from the high to low total dietary fiber content.
Table 1: List of vegetables with their insoluble, soluble, and total fiber content.
Fiber Food Source
Insoluble Fiber (g /100 gram)
Soluble fiber (g /100 gram)
Total dietary fiber (g /100 gram)
Bitter gourd
13.5
3.1
16.6
Field beans
9.3
2.1
11.4
Broad beans
7.3
0.8
8.3
Beet root
5.4
2.4
7.8
Cluster beans
6.1
0.6
6.7
Green plantain
5.8
0.2
6.0
Carrot
4.1
1.6
5.7
Onion
0.9
1.1
5.7
Fenugreek leaves
4.2
0.7
4.9
Lady fingers
3.0
1.3
4.3
Cauliflower
3.5
0.7
4.2
Spinach
3.5
0.6
4.1
Potato
2.6
0.6
3.2
French beans
3.0
0.1
3.1
Table 2: List of fresh fruits, nuts and seeds with their insoluble, soluble, and total fiber content.
Farhath Khanum M., Siddalinga Swamy, K. R. Sudarshana Krishna, K. Santhanam, and K. R. Viswanathan. 2000. Dietary fiber content of commonly fresh and cooked vegetables consumed in India. Plant Foods for Human Nutrition 55: 207-218.
Sally F. Schakel, Janet Pettit, and john H. Himes. Dietary fiber values for common foods. In: Spiller, G. A. 2001.The CRC Handbook of Dietary Fiber in Human Nutrition. 3 ed. CRC Press, London.
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