High-satiety vegetables – the best and the worst

Which vegetables are high in satiety? Most, but there are some exceptions.

Are vegetables effective for weight loss and metabolic health?

Most people would say YES... except some hard-core carnivores and keto people, who might say you should limit many of them as much as possible.

Who is correct?

As always, we combine all key nutritional factors in for our scoring. Hava a look below at the satiety scores of the 20 most common vegetables and a few other things for comparison.

Overview

Note: if the image above is hard to read on a mobile screen, try turning it sideways. You can also pinch to zoom (using two fingers).

As you can see, most vegetables growing above ground are in the high range, with satiety scores of 70 or higher.

Most vegetables growing below ground, e.g. potatoes, are in the medium range, with satiety scores between 30 and 69.

In other words, they can all be incorporated generously into pretty much any diet. If you want a lean physique, weight loss or improvement of metabolic health, the more high-satiety vegetables you eat the better.

Processing

However, there is an important caveat. These scores are for unprocessed foods. With processing or added fats, these high scores tend to decline rapidly. For example, by dehydrating potatoes and adding fat and salt you get potato chips at a score of 2!

Surprises

Perhaps the most surprising scores are olives (27) and avocado (34). A bit lowish, so perhaps some caution is recommended if you want to lean out. Why are they so low? They are extremely low in protein percentage. In other words olives and avocados mostly supply energy (from fat). That's great if you need the energy, but less great if you have too much already. 

The main story though, is that pretty much all vegetables are great from a satiety perspective. I'd suggest eating them as much as you like.

Below ground vegetables

Green leafy vegetables – growing above ground – are generally high satiety.

Root vegetables – growing below ground – tend to be in the balanced center section with scores in the 40-70 range.

The major exceptions are deep-fried versions, like potato chips (2), French fries (13), or onion rings (9). These are way higher in added fat and energy density.

Sweet potato fries or regular French fries? Not much of a difference, they score 16 vs. 13.

Also note that if you add a lot of fat to these vegetables in other ways, e.g., a baked potato with lots of butter and sour cream, the score will also drop noticeably. A loaded baked potato may score in the low 30s.

The very highest scores? Rutabaga (65), turnip (78) and... drumroll... radish at 100.

Carrots, at 59, are solid too.

Note that these scores measure satiety *per calorie*. You won't feel full from one radish, but you can pretty much never gain weight eating radishes, no matter how many you eat!

Legumes, beans, and lentils

Here are the satiety scores on common legumes, beans, and lentils. They are among the consistently highest-scoring food groups, all categories.

Every single bean scores well, even baked beans at 49, which is the lowest score.

From the top, we find edamame beans at 79, and lupini beans at 77. My personal favorite, black beans, follow at 68.

Why do all beans and lentils rank so high in our Hava atiety scoring? Four reasons:

• First, because they are super-high in protein, 25-50% of the calories (lupini beans can be even higher).

• Secondly, they are all very low in energy density. Note that all the scores are for beans prepared for eating by boiling or something else.

• Thirdly, they are very high in fiber. This can cause gas for many people, which admittedly is a downside.

• And finally, their hedonic scores are very low. Few people are eating all the beans they can see. Once people feel full, it's generally easy to stop eating.

More

Check the satiety of any food – and learn how it's calculated: Satiety calculator

To try our Hava satiety app for even more support, get your free trial here.