5 High-Fiber Fruits You May Have Never Tried

You probably know apples, bananas, and berries. An apple gets you about 2.4 grams of fiber, but some of the most interesting high-fiber fruits may be ones you've never even thought to try.

One fruit here is nearly half fiber by weight. Another grows wild across much of North America and goes almost entirely unpicked. Baobab, rose hips, mamey sapote, sapodilla, and breadfruit are five high-fiber fruits that are common foods in places such as Senegal, Sweden, Cuba, India, and Samoa.

Below you'll find the fiber in each one, a realistic serving size, where it grows, and how to eat it. That last part matters more than you'd think: four of these five need a specific technique, and getting it wrong is the difference between a fruit you love and one you never touch again.

1. Baobab

Fiber: 44–56g per 100g of dried pulp.

Serving size: 10g or 1 tablespoon ~ 4.5g of fiber.

Baobab is a large, hard-shelled fruit that develops high on the branches of the baobab tree, and its pulp naturally dries inside the pod while still on the tree. Once processed, it can be ground into a powder that keeps well without refrigeration.

Where it's found: Across much of sub-Saharan Africa, including Senegal, Mali, Malawi, Zimbabwe, and South Africa.

How common: Baobab the fruit and other parts of the tree have long been used as foods in communities across Africa. The pulp can be mixed into drinks and porridges, while baobab leaves are eaten as a vegetable in some regions.

How to eat it: Baobab powder has a naturally tangy, citrus-like flavor. Try adding a small amount to a smoothie, yogurt, or oatmeal. It also thickens liquids, making it particularly useful in drinks and blended foods.

2. Rose Hips

Fiber: About 24g per 100g.

Serving size: 16g or 2 tablespoons ~ 3.8g of fiber.

Rose hips are the small fruits that develop on rose plants after flowering. They're easy to overlook, but they're used as food in several parts of the world and can be turned into everything from tea and syrup to jams and soup.

Where it's found: Rose species grow throughout Europe, Asia, and North America. Rose hips have a particularly strong culinary tradition in Scandinavia and parts of Eastern Europe.

How common: In Sweden, rose hip soup, known as nyponsoppa, is a familiar traditional food and can be found commercially. Rose hips are also used in jams, jellies, teas, and other preparations throughout Europe.

How to eat it: Fresh rose hips contain seeds and fine hairs inside that can irritate the mouth and digestive tract, so they need to be prepared carefully. To eat the flesh, halve the hips and scrape out the seeds and hairs before cooking them into jams or soup. For tea or syrup, simmering the fruit and then straining it removes the seeds and hairs. Dried, prepared rose hips are another convenient option.

3. Mamey Sapote

Fiber: About 5.4 g per 100 g.

Serving size: 1 cup ~ 9g of fiber.

Mamey sapote is a tropical fruit with dense, creamy flesh and a flavor that's often compared to sweet potato, pumpkin, almond, or brown sugar. It's especially popular in parts of Latin America and South Florida.

Where it's found: Native to southern Mexico and Central America, and widely cultivated in places including Cuba, Central America, and South Florida.

How common: Mamey is particularly familiar in Cuban and Latin American communities. In Miami, a mamey batido, a thick milkshake made with the fruit, is a classic preparation.

How to eat it: Let the fruit ripen until it gives slightly to gentle pressure. The flesh can be scooped directly from the skin and eaten on its own, or blended with milk and ice for a batido. A squeeze of lime can also complement its sweetness. The large central seed is toxic raw, so it should be discarded.

4. Sapodilla

Fiber: About 5.3 g per 100 g.

Serving size: 1 medium fruit, about 170g ~ 9g of fiber.

Sapodilla is a small tropical fruit with soft, grainy flesh and an intensely sweet flavor. It tastes similar to caramel, pear, or brown sugar.

Where it's found: Native to southern Mexico and Central America, and now cultivated across India, Southeast Asia, and the Caribbean.

How common: It's an everyday fruit rather than a specialty item across much of the tropics. In India, where it's called chikoo, it's sold by street vendors and in markets. 

How to eat it: Wait until the fruit softens before eating it. An underripe sapodilla can be unpleasantly astringent because of its tannins and latex. Once ripe, cut it in half, scoop out the flesh, and remove the seeds, which have a small hook that can catch in the throat. It's delicious on its own or blended with milk into a chikoo milkshake.

5. Breadfruit

Fiber: About 4.9 g per 100 g.

Serving size: 1 cup ~ 11g of fiber.

Breadfruit is technically a fruit, but its culinary role is closer to that of a potato or other starchy staple. Its firm flesh becomes soft and creamy when cooked.

Where it's found: Widely grown throughout the Pacific Islands, the Caribbean, parts of West Africa, Hawaii, and South and Southeast Asia.

How common: In Samoa, Jamaica, and much of the Pacific, breadfruit is a weekly and sometimes daily food, filling the role that rice or potatoes play elsewhere.

How to eat it: Breadfruit is cooked before eating. One traditional method is roasting the whole fruit until the skin is charred and the flesh becomes tender. It can also be peeled, cut into pieces, and boiled like potatoes, or prepared as fries, chips, curries, and other savory dishes.

Why These Fruits Are So High in Fiber

Fiber content can look very different depending on how much water a food contains.

That's especially important with baobab. The 44–56 g of fiber per 100 g refers to dried pulp, not fresh fruit. Removing water concentrates everything else, including fiber. That's why comparing 100 g of dried baobab with 100 g of a fresh apple isn't an apples-to-apples comparison.

The same principle applies to fruit powders and other concentrated products. Compare the serving-size lines above rather than the per-100 g figures: a tablespoon of baobab powder delivers about 4.5 g of fiber, while a cup of breadfruit delivers roughly 11 g, even though baobab's headline number is ten times higher.

Still, these fruits are worth knowing about. From baobab drinks and Swedish rose hip soup to Cuban mamey batidos and breadfruit prepared like potatoes.

If you're looking to try something new, these five are a good place to start.

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