Do Artichokes Have Fiber?

Artichokes have a reputation as a lot of work for very little food: you scrape a bit of flesh off each leaf and toss the rest. That picture undersells them badly. One medium boiled globe artichoke gives you about 6.8 grams of fiber, roughly a quarter of the Daily Value, for just 64 calories.

By the cup, artichokes fiber climbs to about 9.6 grams, which puts them at the top of the Dietary Guidelines’ list of common vegetables. The edible parts are small, but they’re packed.

Artichokes fiber by serving and form

USDA FoodData Central’s figures cover the edible portion: the tender base of each leaf, the heart and the bottom. The common forms compare like this: the gap between fresh and marinated is bigger than most people expect.

Fresh and frozen artichokes land close together, so frozen hearts are a fair shortcut when whole artichokes are out of season. Canned hearts in water drop to about 3 grams per half cup on one store brand’s label, and that same serving carries 430 mg of sodium, about 19% of the Daily Value.

Marinated hearts are the weakest option for fiber. A typical 30 gram serving gives you under a gram of fiber and 2 grams of oil based fat, so they work better as a flavor accent than a vegetable serving.

How artichokes compare with other fiber rich vegetables

The Dietary Guidelines’ Food Sources of Dietary Fiber list ranks artichokes above every other everyday vegetable by the cup.

Artichokes beat green peas on fiber while carrying about a third fewer calories. They also give you nearly twice the fiber of a cup of broccoli.

Mayo Clinic puts daily fiber needs at about 21 to 25 grams for women and 30 to 38 grams for men. A single medium artichoke covers roughly 27 to 32% of a woman’s target and 18 to 23% of a man’s, which is a big share from one vegetable.

Per 100 calories, cooked artichokes deliver about 10.8 grams of fiber. That’s a strong ratio for any food, and it’s why artichokes earn a spot among the fiber rich vegetables worth building a meal around.

Artichoke nutrition beyond fiber

A medium boiled artichoke (120 g) brings more than fiber. Based on USDA’s record, it provides about:

• Folate: 107 mcg, about 27% of the Daily Value
• Vitamin K: 18 mcg, about 15% DV
• Magnesium: 50 mg, about 12% DV
• Copper: 0.16 mg, about 17% DV
• Manganese: 0.28 mg, about 12% DV
• Vitamin C: 9 mg, about 10% DV
• Potassium: 343 mg, about 7% DV

The same artichoke has about 3.5 grams of protein, under half a gram of fat and only about 1.2 grams of sugar. That’s a lot of nutrition for 64 calories.

Folate, a B vitamin your body uses to make new cells, stands out most. Frozen artichoke hearts are even higher, with USDA listing about 200 mcg, half the Daily Value, in a cooked cup.

Curious how much fiber your own day should hold? Our fiber calculator gives you a personal target in seconds.

Artichokes and digestive health

Artichokes carry a type of fiber that feeds gut bacteria. Monash University’s FODMAP team lists artichokes among foods high in prebiotic fiber, which it describes as non digestible fibers that pass through to the large bowel and can stimulate the growth of some beneficial bacteria.

Monash names fructans (chains of fructose) and galacto oligosaccharides as the main prebiotic fibers. Both feed helpful bacteria, but because they ferment in the gut, they can also cause gas or bloating in people with a sensitive gut, including many with irritable bowel syndrome.

For most people, the bigger digestive story is simply the amount of fiber. Mayo Clinic notes that fiber adds bulk to stool, helps keep bowel movements regular and may lower the risk of some bowel conditions.

If artichokes are new to your plate, start with half an artichoke or a few hearts, then build up. Mayo Clinic recommends increasing fiber gradually and drinking plenty of fluids along the way.

If your gut needs a gentler path to more fiber, our guides walk you through it step by step.

Jerusalem artichokes are a different vegetable

Jerusalem artichokes, also called sunchokes, aren’t artichokes at all. They’re knobby tubers from a type of sunflower, and their nutrition looks very different.

USDA lists raw Jerusalem artichokes at just 1.6 grams of fiber per 100 grams and 9.6 grams of sugar, compared with 5.4 grams of fiber and about 1 gram of sugar in raw globe artichokes. A cup of sliced sunchokes (150 g) has about 2.4 grams of fiber and 110 calories.

Sunchokes do have their own appeal, including a sweet, nutty flavor and about 3.4 mg of iron per 100 grams. They just aren’t a substitute for globe artichokes when fiber is the goal.

So when a recipe or a label says artichoke, check which one it means. For fiber by the cup, the globe artichoke is the clear winner.

How to prepare and eat a whole artichoke

A whole artichoke can look intimidating, but the routine is simple once you’ve done it once:

• Trim the stem and slice about an inch off the top, then snip the sharp tips off the outer leaves.
• Steam or boil until a knife slides easily into the base, usually 25 to 40 minutes depending on size.
• Pull off one leaf at a time and scrape the tender base between your teeth.
• When you reach the thin inner leaves, pull them away and scoop out the fuzzy choke with a spoon.
• Eat the heart and bottom, the meatiest part of the artichoke.
• Peel and eat the stem too, since its center is tender once cooked.

Serve with lemon, a light vinaigrette or a yogurt dip rather than a bowl of melted butter, which can add more calories than the artichoke itself.

Looking for more ways to cook vegetables like artichokes? Our recipe eBooks are packed with easy high fiber meals.

Easy ways to eat more artichoke hearts

Whole artichokes are a weekend project for many people. Frozen or canned hearts make it easy to get artichokes into weekday meals instead:

• Toss thawed frozen hearts with olive oil and roast them until the edges brown.
• Fold chopped hearts into an omelet or frittata with spinach.
• Add rinsed canned hearts to a chickpea or white bean salad.
• Stir hearts into a tomato sauce for pasta in the last few minutes of cooking.
• Top a homemade flatbread or pizza with hearts, olives and red onion.

Each half cup of boiled hearts you add brings close to 5 grams of fiber for about 45 calories. That’s one of the easiest ways to lift a familiar dish without changing how it tastes much.

A bag of frozen hearts also keeps for months, so you can keep one in the freezer for nights when fresh vegetables have run out.

Whichever form you use, recipes built around the hearts make it easy to reach a full half cup per serving, which is where the fiber starts to add up.

An artichoke dinner, counted

Picture a simple weeknight plate: a medium steamed artichoke as a starter, then a cup of whole wheat pasta tossed with half a cup of white beans and a handful of chopped hearts.

The artichoke gives you 6.8 grams, half a cup of navy beans adds 9.6 grams, and half a cup of cooked hearts in the pasta adds another 4.8. Before you count the pasta, the meal is already past 21 grams, three quarters of the Daily Value.

Which artichoke should you pick?

Use this quick rule when you’re shopping:

• If you have time and want the most fiber, buy fresh globe artichokes and cook them whole.
• If you want convenience without losing much fiber, choose frozen artichoke hearts, about 7.7 grams per cooked cup.
• If you’re using canned hearts in water, rinse them to cut the sodium, and expect about 3 grams of fiber per half cup.
• If you love marinated hearts, treat them as a garnish and get your fiber elsewhere in the meal.
• If the label or recipe says sunchoke or Jerusalem artichoke, expect far less fiber than a globe artichoke.

Sources

• USDA Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central: SR Legacy Artichokes, globe or French, raw (169205); cooked, boiled, drained, without salt (168386); frozen, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt (168388); Jerusalem artichokes, raw (169236); branded records for Hannaford Artichoke Hearts Quartered (2433248) and Vigo Marinated Artichoke Hearts (2022351). fdc.nal.usda.gov
• U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “Food Sources of Dietary Fiber.” Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020 to 2025. dietaryguidelines.gov
• U.S. Food and Drug Administration. “Daily Value on the Nutrition and Supplement Facts Labels.” 2024. fda.gov
• Dwyer E. “Dietary fibre series: prebiotic fibre.” Monash University FODMAP blog. 2016. monashfodmap.com
• Mayo Clinic Staff. “Dietary fiber: Essential for a healthy diet.” Mayo Clinic. 2025. mayoclinic.org