Peppers have some fiber, but they aren’t a high-fiber food. A cup of chopped red bell pepper has somewhere around 2 to 3 grams, about a tenth of the Daily Value, and a single jalapeño has less than half a gram. Fiber’s worth paying attention to because most of us don’t get enough of it, and fresh fruits and vegetables are one of the easiest ways to add more. Peppers are technically fruits (even though we treat them as vegetables), so they count. Below, we’ll go pepper by pepper and see how they stack up against foods known for fiber. Then we’ll look at what ripening, drying and cooking do to it, and sort the fact from the fiction.
A quick note before the numbers: we know chili peppers well, but we’re not doctors. If you’re adding fiber for a health reason, whether that’s your digestion, your cholesterol or your blood sugar, talk it over with your doctor first. They know your health, and we know peppers.
How much fiber is in peppers?
It depends on the pepper, and on whether it’s fresh or dried. The Daily Value for fiber on food labels is 28 grams, and a serving of fresh pepper gives you about a tenth of that at most. Here’s how they compare, per 100 grams and per a serving size USDA lists for each.
| Pepper | Per 100 g | Serving | Per serving (% DV) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red bell pepper, raw | 2.1 g | 1 cup chopped (149 g) | 3.1 g (11%) |
| Green bell pepper, raw | 1.7 g | 1 cup chopped (149 g) | 2.5 g (9%) |
| Yellow bell pepper, raw | 0.9 g | 1 large (186 g) | 1.7 g (6%) |
| Banana pepper, raw | 3.4 g | 1 medium (46 g) | 1.6 g (6%) |
| Hungarian pepper, raw | 1.0 g | 1 pepper (27 g) | 0.3 g (1%) |
| Jalapeño, raw | 2.8 g | 1 pepper (14 g) | 0.4 g (1%) |
| Serrano, raw | 3.7 g | 1 pepper (6 g) | 0.2 g (1%) |
| Hot chili, green or red, raw | 1.5 g | 1 pepper (45 g) | 0.7 g (2%) |
| Jalapeños, canned | 2.6 g | 1 cup sliced (104 g) | 2.7 g (10%) |
| Green chilies, canned | 1.3 g | 1/2 cup (68 g) | 0.9 g (3%) |
| Pimento, canned | 1.9 g | 1 tablespoon (12 g) | 0.2 g (1%) |
| Ancho (dried poblano) | 21.6 g | 1 pepper (17 g) | 3.7 g (13%) |
| Pasilla, dried | 26.8 g | 1 pepper (7 g) | 1.9 g (7%) |
| Chili powder | 34.8 g | 1 teaspoon (2.7 g) | 0.9 g (3%) |
| Paprika | 34.9 g | 1 teaspoon (2.3 g) | 0.8 g (3%) |
| Cayenne, ground | 27.2 g | 1 teaspoon (1.8 g) | 0.5 g (2%) |
One caveat on those numbers. USDA’s newer, lab-tested data (its Foundation Foods set) found less fiber in bell peppers than the older figures above. It’s about 1.2 grams per 100 grams in red bells and about 0.9 in green ones. The red bell’s 2.1 in the table is an estimate based on another form of the food, and it wasn’t measured directly. So a cup of chopped bell pepper may give you closer to 1.5 to 2 grams than the 2.5 to 3 in the table.
There’s more to peppers than fiber, too. For vitamins A, B6, C and K, pepper by pepper, see our guide to vitamins in peppers.
Which peppers have the most fiber?
By weight, a few of the hot peppers come out ahead. Serranos have 3.7 grams per 100 grams and jalapeños have 2.8, against 1.7 for green bell pepper and 2.1 for red. Banana peppers do well too, at 3.4 grams.
But the per-serving column tells a different story. A jalapeño weighs about 14 grams, so it gives you under half a gram of fiber, and a single serrano gives you about a fifth of a gram. Bell peppers are sweet with no heat, which means eating a full cup isn’t a problem, whereas hot peppers are usually eaten in much smaller amounts. For the fiber you’ll get in a normal meal, bell peppers count for more.
You won’t find scotch bonnets or habaneros in the table. USDA doesn’t publish fiber figures for either one, so we’ve left them out and stuck to peppers it’s got data on.
How do peppers compare to high-fiber foods?
While some peppers do contain more than others, none could be considered a truly high-fiber food. That’s clear when you compare them to foods that are. Here’s the same serving math for a few of them, from the same USDA data.
| Food | Per 100 g | Serving | Per serving |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lentils, cooked | 7.9 g | 1 cup (198 g) | 15.6 g |
| Black beans, cooked | 8.7 g | 1 cup (172 g) | 15.0 g |
| Lima beans, cooked | 7.0 g | 1 cup (188 g) | 13.2 g |
| Raspberries, raw | 6.5 g | 1 cup (123 g) | 8.0 g |
| Blackberries, raw | 5.3 g | 1 cup (144 g) | 7.6 g |
| Artichoke, cooked | 5.7 g | 1 medium (120 g) | 6.8 g |
| Apple, raw, with skin | 2.4 g | 1 medium (182 g) | 4.4 g |
| Red bell pepper, raw | 2.1 g | 1 cup chopped (149 g) | 3.1 g |
| Broccoli, cooked | 3.3 g | 1/2 cup chopped (78 g) | 2.6 g |
A cup of lentils has about five times the fiber in a cup of chopped red bell pepper. A medium apple has more, too. Where peppers earn their place is volume. You can add a cup of bell pepper to a salad, a stir-fry or a pot of chili without changing the dish much, and those few grams add up alongside everything else on your plate.
Is the fiber in peppers soluble or insoluble?
Fiber comes in two kinds, and they don’t do the same job. Soluble fiber dissolves in water and forms a gel, and it can help lower cholesterol and blood sugar, according to the Mayo Clinic. Insoluble fiber won’t dissolve. It adds bulk to stool, which can help with constipation.
Green bell peppers, at least, lean insoluble. When USDA researchers measured the two types in 70 common foods (Li and colleagues, 2002), raw green bell pepper had 0.53 grams of soluble fiber and 0.99 grams of insoluble fiber per 100 grams. That’s about two-thirds insoluble. That study didn’t test red bells or hot chilies, and we couldn’t find solid figures for them elsewhere. If it’s soluble fiber you’re after, beans, lentils and oats will do far more for you than peppers.
Do red peppers have more fiber than green ones?
A little, by USDA’s numbers. Most red bell peppers are green bells that’ve been left on the plant to ripen, and the older figures give red bells 2.1 grams per 100 grams to the green’s 1.7. That’s not a huge difference, but it’s a difference. (Here’s why bell peppers come in different colors.)
The lab-tested figures don’t change the picture. They point the same way, at about 1.2 grams for red and 0.9 for green, so the gap holds up even though both numbers come down. Yellow bells come in lowest in the older data, at 0.9 grams. Keep in mind that they’re averages, and any one pepper’s fiber will vary with the variety and how it was grown.
Do dried peppers and chili powder have more fiber?
Dried peppers have far more fiber per gram, because most of a fresh pepper’s weight is water. A raw red bell pepper is about 92% water by USDA’s figures. Once that water’s gone, what’s left is much more concentrated. Dried anchos have 21.6 grams of fiber per 100 grams, dried pasillas have 26.8 and sun-dried hot chilies have 28.7.
That doesn’t mean drying adds fiber. You’re just eating less water. And you don’t eat dried chilies by the 100 grams. One ancho weighs about 17 grams and gives you about 3.7 grams of fiber, which is a decent amount if you’re blending a few into a sauce. A teaspoon of chili powder has under a gram, and a teaspoon of ground cayenne has about half a gram.
Does cooking peppers reduce their fiber?
Probably not by much, but there’s very little research on peppers specifically. USDA does list boiled bell peppers at 1.2 grams per 100 grams, which is lower than raw. But those cooked figures weren’t measured directly, so we wouldn’t read much into the drop.
The closest research we found is a Swedish study on white cabbage. Ten minutes of boiling cut its total fiber by about 10% on average, mostly from the insoluble kind, and one variety lost only 2%. Cabbage isn’t a pepper, so take that as a rough guide. From what’s been measured, though, cooking doesn’t strip out fiber the way it can strip out vitamin C. So eat your peppers raw or cooked, however you’d like them.
How much fiber do you need?
The Daily Value on food labels is 28 grams. The National Academy of Medicine recommends 25 grams a day for women 50 and younger and 38 grams for men 50 and younger. After 50, it’s 21 and 30 grams, the Mayo Clinic notes. That’s about 14 grams for every 1,000 calories you eat.
Most people fall short. An analysis of national survey data from 2013 to 2018 found that only about 5% of men and 9% of women got the recommended amount. It was presented at a 2021 nutrition conference and it’s preliminary, but it’s in line with earlier estimates.
If you’re adding more fiber, go slowly over a few weeks and drink plenty of water, since fiber works best when it absorbs water. Peppers won’t close the gap on their own. But a cup of chopped bell pepper a day gets you about a tenth of the way there.
Fiber in peppers: fact or fiction?
Here’s where the common claims about fiber in peppers stand.
- “Peppers are a high-fiber food.” Fiction. A cup of chopped red bell pepper has 2 to 3 grams, and a cup of cooked lentils has more than 15. Peppers help, but they’re a small contributor.
- “Hot peppers have more fiber than bell peppers.” True by weight, but not by serving. Serranos and jalapeños beat bell peppers per 100 grams, yet one jalapeño gives you under half a gram.
- “Red peppers have more fiber than green ones.” Mostly true, but only by a little. Both USDA’s older figures and its newer lab tests put red bells slightly ahead of green ones.
- “Drying a pepper adds fiber.” Fiction. Drying takes out water, so the fiber is more concentrated per gram. One dried ancho has about 3.7 grams, which is a fair amount but nothing more.
- “Chili powder is a good way to get more fiber.” Fiction. It’s about 35% fiber by weight, but a teaspoon weighs under 3 grams, so you get less than a gram of fiber from it.
- “Cooking peppers destroys their fiber.” Mostly fiction. The research on peppers is thin, but boiling cabbage for 10 minutes cut its fiber by only about 10% on average, so raw or cooked both count.
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Related reading
- Vitamin C In Peppers: The Fact And Fiction: How much vitamin C each pepper has, and how they compare to oranges.
- Vitamins In Peppers: How Much You Get, Pepper By Pepper: Vitamins A, B6, C and K across fresh and dried peppers.
- Jalapeño Nutrition: How Healthy Are They?: What else a jalapeño brings besides its heat.