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Grains · Whole Grains
Bulgur Wheat: Is It Healthy? Nutrition, Benefits & Gluten
What bulgur is, what a cooked cup gives you, how it affects your blood sugar, how it compares with refined wheat, and the best ways to buy and eat it, plus who should skip it.
Evidence-based43 sources citedUpdated October 16, 2026
The Dr. Axe Score™
Scientific Evidence
6.3/10
Large studies and trials of whole grains as a group, plus six glycemic index tests and one 4-week trial of bulgur itself.
Antioxidant & Anti-Inflammatory
5.2/10
Ferulic acid and other phenolic compounds; whole-grain diets lowered inflammation markers in a trial in which each person tried both diets.
Clinical Effectiveness
5.4/10
Our judgment: an easy whole-grain swap for refined wheat that's gentle on blood sugar, held back by gluten and by not being sprouted.
Nutrient Density
6.2/10
Rated against other whole grains: 29% DV fiber and 48% DV manganese per cooked cup, modest amounts of most other nutrients.
Why this score?
Why Bulgur Wheat scores 5.8 / 10
Weighting: Evidence 30% · Antioxidant & Anti-Inflammatory 25% · Clinical Effectiveness 25% · Nutrient Density 20% (6.3×0.30 + 5.2×0.25 + 5.4×0.25 + 6.2×0.20 = 1.89 + 1.30 + 1.35 + 1.24 = 5.78, shown as 5.8). How we score
A transparent, weighted index built for foods. See how it’s calculated →
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Bulgur wheat at a glance
Bulgur is whole wheat, usually durum, that's cooked, dried and cracked before it's sold, and a cooked cup gives you 151 calories, 8.2 grams of fiber and nearly half a day's manganese.123
- Dr. Axe's view: a real step up from white flour and regular couscous, with sprouted wheat and the ancient grains first in line4
- Blood sugar: in five tests in people with diabetes, bulgur averaged 47 on the glycemic index, a low score5
- Best ways to eat it: organic, with fresh herbs, lemon, olive oil, vegetables and legumes
- Skip it with celiac disease or a wheat allergy, since it's wheat
Bulgur starts as whole wheat kernels that are boiled until the starch cooks through, dried, and then cracked into small golden pieces.1 That head start makes it one of the quickest whole grains to get on the table, whether you soak it for tabbouleh or simmer it into a pilaf.
Bulgur is a whole grain, so it keeps the bran and germ that milling strips out of white flour. That makes it a real step up from white bread, white pasta and regular couscous. In The Biblio Diet, the book I wrote with Jordan Rubin, the eat list includes einkorn, emmer, farro, quinoa and buckwheat, and wheat only when it's sprouted, so those grains come first.4
The reason is preparation. Heal Your Cells, the book I wrote with Dr. Will Cole, explains that sprouting and fermenting reduce phytic acid, a natural compound in grains that binds minerals, so more of their iron, zinc, calcium and magnesium becomes available to your body.6
Historically almost all grains were either sprouted or fermented because that helped break down and destroy the phytic acid, which then allowed people to fully absorb those nutrients.Dr. Josh Axe, DC, DNM, CNSFrom 10 Signs You Have an Iron Deficiency (How to Boost Iron Naturally), The Dr. Josh Axe Show (2024), at 22:46
What is bulgur wheat?
Quick answer
Bulgur is whole wheat, usually durum wheat, that's cooked in water, dried and cracked into small pieces.1 It counts as a whole grain, and because it's wheat, it contains gluten.78
You'll find bulgur in fine, medium and coarse grinds. Fine bulgur is the usual choice for tabbouleh, and the coarser grinds hold their shape in pilafs, stuffings and soups. Whole, uncracked wheat kernels are sold separately as wheat berries.
Bulgur is usually made from durum, the hard wheat used for pasta, but food scientists have also made it from einkorn and emmer, two of the oldest wheats.910
A short history of bulgur
Bulgur has been one of the most important traditional durum wheat foods in Turkey and the Middle East for a very long time.11 It's made from hard wheat with no additives, and it keeps a long time on the shelf.10 Bulgur also goes into kishk, made by fermenting the grain with yogurt or fermented milk and then drying it; kishk and its cousin tarhana are valued for their nutrition and for how well they keep.1213
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Open the free protocol →Bulgur nutrition facts
Quick answer
A cooked cup of bulgur (182 grams) has 151 calories, 33.9 grams of carbohydrate, 8.2 grams of fiber and 5.6 grams of protein, with 48% of the daily value for manganese and 14% for magnesium.23 It's nearly fat-free, at 0.4 grams per cup.
Bulgur, cooked (FDC ID 170287), from USDA FoodData Central, per cooked cup and per 100 grams; % Daily Value uses FDA reference values.23
| Nutrient | 1 cup cooked (182 g) | % DV per cup | Per 100 g cooked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 151 | n/a | 83 |
| Carbohydrate | 33.9 g | 12% | 18.6 g |
| Fiber | 8.2 g | 29% | 4.5 g |
| Protein | 5.6 g | 11% | 3.08 g |
| Fat | 0.4 g | 1% | 0.24 g |
| Manganese | 1.11 mg | 48% | 0.609 mg |
| Copper | 0.14 mg | 15% | 0.075 mg |
| Magnesium | 58 mg | 14% | 32 mg |
| Niacin | 1.8 mg | 11% | 1.0 mg |
| Iron | 1.75 mg | 10% | 0.96 mg |
| Zinc | 1.04 mg | 9% | 0.57 mg |
| Vitamin B6 | 0.15 mg | 9% | 0.083 mg |
| Thiamin | 0.10 mg | 9% | 0.057 mg |
| Folate | 33 mcg | 8% | 18 mcg |
| Phosphorus | 73 mg | 6% | 40 mg |
| Potassium | 124 mg | 3% | 68 mg |
| Sodium | 9 mg | <1% | 5 mg |
A cup covers more than a quarter of your daily fiber and close to half your manganese, with useful copper, magnesium, niacin and iron. It also carries 98 micrograms of lutein and zeaxanthin, yellow plant pigments, but no vitamin C and almost no vitamin A or vitamin E.2 Lemon, parsley and tomatoes bring the vitamin C, and pumpkin seeds or leafy greens add more magnesium.
Is bulgur healthy?
Quick answer
Bulgur is a real step up from refined wheat: it's a whole grain, and a cooked cup has 8.2 grams of fiber, nearly four times the 2.2 grams in a cup of regular couscous.214 I rank sprouted wheat and the ancient grains ahead of it.4
Milling strips the germ and the bran from wheat to make fine white flour, and the process removes nutrients such as zinc and iron.4 USDA's numbers show the size of the loss. Per 100 grams, whole-grain wheat flour carries 10.7 grams of fiber, 137 milligrams of magnesium and 2.6 milligrams of zinc; enriched white flour carries 2.7 grams of fiber, 22 milligrams of magnesium and 0.7 milligrams of zinc.1516 Enrichment adds back thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, folic acid and iron, which leaves the fiber, magnesium and zinc behind.17
Bulgur is cracked rather than milled into flour, and its fiber and magnesium numbers show the difference. Regular couscous is made from semolina, the coarsely ground inner part of durum wheat. A cup of cooked couscous (157 grams) has 176 calories, 2.2 grams of fiber and 13 milligrams of magnesium, while a cup of cooked bulgur has 151 calories, 8.2 grams of fiber and 58 milligrams of magnesium.142
Fiber per cooked cup: 8.2 grams in bulgur, 2.2 grams in regular couscous
Refined grains show up in the long-term numbers, too. When the PURE study followed 137,130 adults in 21 countries for a median of 9.5 years, people who ate the most refined grains, 350 grams a day or more, had 27% higher risk of dying during the study and 33% higher risk of major cardiovascular events than people who ate under 50 grams a day.18
Preparation decides how bulgur ranks against the grains I recommend most. I see five problems with modern bread: grain that hasn't been sprouted, hybridized wheat, glyphosate spraying, milling away the bran and germ, and enrichment with synthetic vitamins.4 Bulgur isn't milled into white flour or enriched, and buying organic answers the glyphosate concern. Because it's unsprouted modern wheat, it ranks behind the grains on my eat list, which also includes millet and brown rice.4 My bread ranking follows the same order: ancient-grain sourdough first, then sprouted whole-grain bread, then ancient-grain bread, then organic whole-grain and whole-grain bread, with white bread on the avoid list.4
| Grain | What it is | Gluten | On my food lists |
|---|---|---|---|
White flour, white pasta, regular couscous | Wheat with the bran and germ milled out | Yes | Avoid side4 |
Bulgur | Whole wheat kernels, cooked, dried and cracked1 | Yes | A whole grain; wheat makes the eat side when sprouted4 |
Sprouted wheat | Wheat sprouted before it's dried or milled | Yes | Eat side4 |
Einkorn, emmer and farro | Ancient wheats; einkorn and emmer are also made into bulgur910 | Yes | Eat side4 |
Quinoa, buckwheat, millet, brown rice | Gluten-free grains and seeds | No | Eat side4 |
What is bulgur good for?
Quick answer
Eating whole grains such as bulgur in place of refined grains is linked to a healthier heart, a longer life and lower type 2 diabetes risk, and trials show better blood-sugar control, lower inflammation and less body fat.1920212223
Where the research stands
Bulgur itself has been studied mostly for its effect on blood sugar: six glycemic index tests, five in people with diabetes and one in 8 healthy adults, plus one 4-week trial in which 31 adults ate it daily.52425 The heart, diabetes-risk, inflammation and weight findings below come from whole grains and fiber as a group, in studies that tracked people's diets for years and in trials that swapped whole grains for refined ones.
1
More fiber, and the protection that comes with it
Strong evidenceHuman studyMeta-analyses · 185 prospective studies and 58 trialsA 2019 series of reviews in The Lancet pooled 185 studies that tracked people for years and 58 clinical trials. Compared with the lowest fiber eaters, the highest had 15% to 30% lower rates of death from any cause and from cardiovascular disease, along with lower rates of coronary heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and colorectal cancer. The biggest drops came at 25 to 29 grams of fiber a day, and the dose-response curves suggested that eating even more could protect further; whole grains showed similar results.19 In a 2025 episode of my show, I put the target at about 10 grams of fiber per meal, with vegetables, berries, nuts and seeds as the best sources, and a cooked cup of bulgur gets one meal most of the way there.262
Study takeaway: the highest fiber eaters had 15% to 30% lower rates of early death and several chronic diseases.
2
A healthier heart and a longer life
Strong evidenceHuman studyDose-response meta-analysis · 45 prospective studiesA 2016 analysis in The BMJ pooled 45 studies that followed people's diets over time. For every 90 grams of whole grains a day, about three servings, risk was 19% lower for coronary heart disease, 22% lower for cardiovascular disease, 17% lower for death from any cause and 15% lower for death from cancer.20 Bulgur is one of the whole grains that can count toward that daily total.
Study takeaway: every extra 90 grams of whole grains a day was linked to 17% lower risk of early death.
About three more servings of whole grains a day: 17% lower risk of early death
3
Lower type 2 diabetes risk
Moderate evidenceHuman studyDose-response meta-analysis · 16 cohort studies, 10 for whole grainsIn a review of 16 cohort studies, the whole-grain analysis pooled 10 of them: every three extra daily servings of whole grains went with 32% lower risk of type 2 diabetes. Refined grains showed no clear link (5% lower, too small to rule out chance), and the authors suggested at least two servings of whole grains a day to lower the risk.27
Study takeaway: three more servings of whole grains a day was linked to 32% lower risk of type 2 diabetes.
4
Better blood-sugar control
Moderate evidenceHuman studyMeta-analysis · 42 trials in adults with prediabetes or diabetesIn a review of 42 trials of 1,789 adults with prediabetes or diabetes, eating more fiber lowered HbA1c by about 0.2 percentage points across 33 trials and fasting blood sugar by about 10 mg/dL across 34, compared with lower-fiber diets, though results varied widely from trial to trial.21 Bulgur's own measured effect on blood sugar, and why it's gentler than bread made from flour, is in the blood-sugar section below.
Study takeaway: more fiber lowered HbA1c and fasting blood sugar in trials of people with prediabetes or diabetes.
5
Lower inflammation
Emerging evidenceHuman studyRandomized trial · 50 adults, each tried both dietsIn a Danish trial, 60 adults at risk of metabolic syndrome ate a whole-grain diet for 8 weeks and a refined-grain diet for 8 weeks, in random order, and 50 finished both, so each person tried both diets. The whole grains were mostly whole-grain wheat and rye products, plus oats. The two diets didn't differ in insulin sensitivity or the makeup of the gut bacteria, but inflammation markers moved: on whole grains, CRP went from 6.3 to 4.2 mg/L and IL-6 from 1.6 to 1.4 pg/mL, while on refined grains CRP rose from 3.1 to 5.0 mg/L and IL-6 from 1.2 to 2.0 pg/mL.22 The drop in IL-6 tracked how much whole grain people ate, rye in particular.22
Study takeaway: inflammation markers fell on whole grains and rose on refined grains over 8 weeks.
6
Help holding a healthy weight
Emerging evidenceHuman studyMeta-analysis of 26 trials · 2,060 adults; one trial of 50 adultsIn the same Danish trial of 50 adults who each tried both diets, weight went from 85.4 to 85.2 kg on whole grains and from 86.1 to 87.0 kg on refined grains, a gain of about 2 pounds, and people ate fewer calories on the whole-grain diet.22 Across 26 trials of 2,060 adults lasting up to 16 weeks, whole grains trimmed body fat by 0.48 percentage points compared with refined grains, while body weight stayed about the same.23 Bulgur makes that swap easy at any meal.
Study takeaway: adults held their weight on whole grains and gained on refined grains, and whole grains trimmed body fat in 26 trials.
Does bulgur raise blood sugar?
Quick answer
Bulgur raises blood sugar more gently than bread made from wheat flour: in tests of people with diabetes it scored 46 on the glycemic index, against 67 for bread made from wholemeal wheat flour, and five tests in people with diabetes averaged 47, a low score.5 On that scale glucose scores 100, a score of 55 or less counts as low, and 70 or more counts as high.5
A Canadian research team put the two side by side. They gave bulgur, boiled for 20 minutes, to 17 volunteers with diabetes, 5 with type 1 and 12 with type 2, and bread made from wholemeal wheat flour to 14, in portions that each held 50 grams of carbohydrate.28 On the glucose scale, bulgur scored 46 and the bread 67.5 They concluded that traditional processing such as parboiling may keep the low glycemic index of the whole, unmilled grain.28
Glycemic index: 46 for bulgur, 67 for bread made from wholemeal wheat flour
Across five Canadian tests of bulgur in people with diabetes, it averaged 47, and a 150-gram serving of cooked bulgur, about four-fifths of a cup, carries a glycemic load of 12.5 Your own response may differ, though. In a Polish test of 8 healthy adults, a bulgur sold in Poland averaged 64.5, a medium score, with individual results from 25.4 to 138.9.24 Its blood-sugar peak came at 60 minutes, later than the other grains tested, which peaked at 15 to 30 minutes, and regular couscous scored 99.0 in the same test.24
Here's how bulgur's processing shapes the way your body handles it:
1The whole kernel is cooked.
Makers boil whole wheat kernels until the starch is cooked all the way through, which took 42 to 53 minutes in one study, then dry them from about 45% moisture to about 10%.1
2It's cracked rather than milled.
The dried kernels are cracked and sieved into pieces, so the starch stays inside fragments of the grain instead of being ground into flour.1
3Fiber and resistant starch come along.
Industrial bulgur samples carried 5.8% to 8.2% dietary fiber and 2.1% to 2.8% resistant starch, a form of starch that resists digestion.11
4Digestion takes longer (proposed).
The team that measured bulgur's glycemic index proposed that this traditional processing keeps the slower-digesting character of the unmilled grain; the steps in between weren't measured directly.28
5Blood sugar rises more gently.
In people with diabetes, bulgur raised blood sugar less than bread made from wholemeal wheat flour, as the chart above shows.5
One trial so far has had people eat bulgur every day. Researchers in Ankara asked 148 adults with overweight or obesity to add 40 grams of dry bulgur, white rice, red quinoa or buckwheat to their usual diet each day for 4 weeks; people knew which grain they ate, and 125 finished, 31 of them in the bulgur group. After a month, the changes in blood sugar, cholesterol, blood pressure, inflammation markers and weight didn't differ between the four groups.25 Within the bulgur group, the 26 women's CRP fell from 5.7 to 4.1 mg/L and their weight from 82.4 to 81.6 kg. In the 5 men, weight and LDL cholesterol fell, while their blood-sugar rise after a standard glucose drink got larger.25
For the gentlest rise, make bulgur the side rather than the base: fill most of the plate with vegetables, legumes, fish, chicken or eggs, and dress it with olive oil.
Three blood tests that show how you handle carbohydrates
Over weeks and months, these tests show how your body is managing blood sugar.
- HbA1c: Your average blood sugar over roughly the past three months.29
- Fasting insulin: How hard your body is working to keep blood sugar steady.
- Fasting glucose: Your blood sugar after an overnight fast. See normal blood sugar levels.
See the cellular bloodwork panel
Have results? Analyze them free →How should you buy and eat bulgur?
Quick answer
Buy organic bulgur, try einkorn or emmer bulgur when you can find it, and serve it with vegetables, fresh herbs, lemon, olive oil and a protein such as chickpeas, lentils, wild-caught fish, chicken or eggs.4 To cook it, simmer 1 cup of bulgur in 2 cups of water, covered, for about 12 minutes, or cover it with boiling water and let it stand until tender.30
Start with organic. In a 2026 episode of my show, I pointed out that non-organic food almost always carries some level of glyphosate, a chemical that's sprayed on wheat, oats, corn and soy.31 It's often applied to wheat just before and right after harvest.4 In Lithuanian field trials, glyphosate sprayed before harvest left residues in wheat grain that held steady through more than a year of storage, and after milling the residues sat mainly in the bran, with none found in white flour at the label rate and only a trace at double the rate; all were below the EU's legal limits.32 Whole-grain foods keep the bran, so organic matters most for them, and my shopping list says it plainly: buy organic when possible.4 See glyphosate in food for more.
Try an ancient-wheat bulgur when you can find one. In a lab study of bulgur production methods, einkorn had more phenolic compounds than durum wheat and about twice the yellow pigment, though it lost more of those compounds during processing, and both wheats kept much of their antioxidant capacity after being made into bulgur; ferulic acid was the main phenolic acid in both.9 Emmer makes good bulgur too.10 Einkorn and emmer are still wheat, so the gluten guidance in the safety section below applies to them.
Plain bulgur is parboiled, which is a cooking step; it isn't sprouted or fermented. The traditional fermented bulgur foods show what fermentation adds. In a lab study, blending parboiled wheat with fermented milk and fermenting it for 24 hours, the way kishk-type foods are made, lowered its phytic acid by 40% to 58%, depending on how acidic the milk was.13 Sprouting activates enzymes that break phytic acid down as well; in lab measurements, brown rice sprouted for 12 to 72 hours lost 60% of its phytic acid.33 Sprouted grain bread is the easiest place to start.
For tabbouleh, my recipe uses quinoa and suggests sprouted wheat or einkorn as the more traditional grain.4 Whichever grain you use, the lemon, parsley and tomatoes do more than add flavor. When I talked about iron on my show, I explained that vitamin C eaten alongside grains helps with phytic acid, though sprouting and fermentation matter even more.34 This quinoa tabouli is one version to try.
Pilaf with legumes. Simmer coarse bulgur in broth with onions, then fold in chickpeas or lentils and fresh herbs.
Stuffed vegetables. Fill bell peppers, tomatoes or zucchini with bulgur, lentils, herbs and a little feta made from sheep or goat milk.
A protein bowl. Top bulgur with wild-caught salmon, chicken or a pasture-raised egg, plus greens and a drizzle of olive oil.
Soups and stews. Stir a spoonful or two into vegetable or chicken soup to give it body.
If a pilaf recipe calls for shrimp or sausage, use wild-caught fish or chicken instead. Shellfish don't have both fins and scales, the standard I follow, and pork is on my avoid list.4
Questions about grains and gluten?
Ask Dr. Axe AI. Answers are grounded in this library, with sources shown.
Who should avoid bulgur?
Quick answer
Skip bulgur if you have celiac disease or a wheat allergy, because it's wheat and contains gluten.8 If you have IBS or SIBO, or you've had calcium oxalate kidney stones, keep portions modest, and if you're new to high-fiber grains, start with a small serving.
With celiac disease, bulgur is off the table. Celiac disease is an immune disorder triggered by gluten, the protein found naturally in wheat, barley and rye, and it damages the small intestine.8 It often goes unnoticed: a 2026 analysis of 87 published articles covering 394,274 people found that 1.5%, about 1 in 70, tested positive on celiac blood tests and 0.8%, about 1 in 120, had celiac disease confirmed by biopsy, and 41.4% of those confirmed had no symptoms.35 If you have it, buy only grains labeled gluten-free, which under FDA rules means less than 20 parts per million of gluten.36 Einkorn, emmer and sprouted wheat, and bulgur made from any of them, contain gluten too, so they aren't safe with celiac disease. Gluten-free grains such as quinoa, buckwheat, millet and rice are your swaps. If you suspect celiac disease, get tested before you cut gluten, because a gluten-free diet can affect the test results.37 A wheat allergy is a separate reaction to wheat itself, and it rules out bulgur as well.
For everyone else, preparation matters more than gluten. Gluten isn't a villain, as I put it on my show in 2024; the bigger problem is eating grains without the old preparations, sprouting and fermenting, that make them more digestible.38 If you think gluten bothers you, my Anti-Inflammatory Reset gives the order of steps: remove sugar, fried food and processed food first, and if symptoms linger, try a 3-week elimination and reintroduce one food at a time.39 See gluten intolerance symptoms for the signs.
If FODMAPs bother you, portion size matters with any wheat, bulgur included. Fructans, the FODMAP in wheat, can cause digestive trouble in some people. In a 2024 analysis of cooked grains, one product of each kind, bulgur had 0.50 grams of fructans per 100 grams of dry matter, against 0.83 grams for semolina and 2.04 grams for couscous, and the authors credited the heat used in making bulgur.40 In my SIBO Protocol, a low-FODMAP diet is a short-term tool, and foods come back one at a time.41
Whole-grain durum wheat is high in oxalate, at 76.6 milligrams per 100 grams, and whole-grain durum products, bulgur among them, measured comparably high in a German analysis of cereal foods.42 Oxalates aren't harmful in small amounts, though eating a lot of high-oxalate foods can contribute to kidney stones in susceptible people.6 If you've had calcium oxalate kidney stones, keep bulgur portions moderate and rotate it with other grains.
If you're not used to high-fiber grains, start with a small portion and drink plenty of water while your gut adjusts.
One more caution:
On insulin or other glucose-lowering medication, watch your readings as you change what you eat; your doctor adjusts the dose
The bottom line
Should you eat bulgur wheat?
Bulgur is whole wheat that's been cooked, dried and cracked, which gives you a quick whole grain with 8.2 grams of fiber per cup and a gentler effect on blood sugar than bread made from flour. Choose organic bulgur over white flour, white pasta and regular couscous every time. For your everyday grains, I put sprouted wheat and the ancient grains first, so make einkorn, emmer, farro, quinoa and buckwheat your mainstays.
Serve bulgur as tabbouleh, pilaf or a grain bowl, with herbs, lemon, olive oil, vegetables and legumes. If you have celiac disease, a wheat allergy or a history of kidney stones, see Who should avoid bulgur? first.
Small, steady swaps like this one give your body more to work with every day.
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Open the free protocol →Bulgur wheat: frequently asked questions
Is bulgur healthy?
What is bulgur made of?
Is bulgur a whole grain?
Yes. The FDA's whole-grain guidance lists bulgur among the cereal grains, and a grain counts as whole when its bran, germ and starchy endosperm keep their natural proportions, whether it's left intact, ground or cracked.7
Is bulgur gluten-free?
Is bulgur the same as cracked wheat?
Not quite. Bulgur is cooked and dried before it's cracked, while plain cracked wheat is cracked from raw kernels.1
Is bulgur healthier than quinoa?
Bulgur has more fiber and fewer calories, while quinoa has more protein and magnesium and ranks higher with me: it's on my eat list and is the grain in my tabbouleh recipe.4 Per cooked cup, bulgur has 151 calories, 8.2 grams of fiber and 5.6 grams of protein, while quinoa has 222 calories, 5.2 grams of fiber, 8.1 grams of protein and 118 milligrams of magnesium, and it's gluten-free.243
Is bulgur healthier than couscous?
What is the glycemic index of bulgur?
Is bulgur good for people with diabetes?
Yes, in sensible portions: in tests of people with diabetes, bulgur scored 46 on the glycemic index, against 67 for bread made from wholemeal wheat flour.5 Pair it with vegetables and protein, and if you take insulin or other glucose-lowering medication, see Who should avoid bulgur? before you change how you eat.
Is bulgur good for weight loss?
It can help as a swap for refined grains: in a trial in which 50 adults each tried both diets for 8 weeks, they held their weight on whole grains and gained about 2 pounds on refined grains.22 In 26 trials of 2,060 adults, whole grains trimmed body fat slightly, while body weight stayed about the same.23
How much protein is in bulgur?
Is bulgur low-carb or keto?
Is bulgur low FODMAP?
Not strictly, since it's wheat, but cooked bulgur measured lower in fructans than semolina and couscous in a 2024 analysis of one product of each: 0.50 grams per 100 grams of dry matter, against 0.83 and 2.04 grams.40 If FODMAPs bother you, keep the portion small.
Is bulgur sprouted?
How do you cook bulgur?
Simmer 1 cup of bulgur in 2 cups of water or broth, covered, until it's tender, about 12 minutes; that makes about 3 cups. Or cover it with boiling water, let it stand 10 to 30 minutes, less for fine bulgur and more for coarse, and drain off any extra liquid.30 For a salad, toss it with lemon juice, olive oil and fresh herbs while it's still warm.
Freshness & update log
October 16, 2026 — Rebuilt the page ("Bulgur Wheat: Better Option for Your Belly or Gluten Trap?") to the current DrAxe.com standard under Dr. Josh Axe's byline. Added the Dr. Axe Score; Dr. Axe's grain guidance from The Biblio Diet, with sprouted wheat and the ancient grains ranked first; USDA nutrition facts with the FDA's current daily values; bulgur's measured glycemic index in people with diabetes and in healthy adults; how bulgur compares with refined wheat and couscous; benefits ranked by evidence, with the numbers from each study; organic, ancient-wheat and fermented bulgur; how to cook it; and guidance on gluten, FODMAPs and oxalate, with 43 numbered references. Removed claims the cited research doesn't support, including that the short-chain fats made from its fiber balance the body's pH, that it lowers homocysteine and that it improves immunity, along with storage times that had no source.
References
- Dorra ST, Farah D, Nesrine H, Wafa A, Youkabed Z. Drying Behavior of Bulgur and Its Effect on Phytochemical Content. Foods. 2022;11(7):1062. doi:10.3390/foods11071062. PMID:35407147
- U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. Bulgur, cooked. FoodData Central, SR Legacy, FDC ID 170287.
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Daily Value on the Nutrition and Supplement Facts Labels.
- Axe J, Rubin J. The Biblio Diet. Hachette Book Group; 2025. ISBN 9781546008439. Food lists ("Grains and starchy carbohydrates" and "Dairy/Milk" eat and avoid columns), shopping list, "The Consequences of Modern Bread-Baking Practices," the bread ranking ("Take Action Now") and the recipe "Pomegranate & Quinoa Tabbouleh."
- Atkinson FS, Foster-Powell K, Brand-Miller JC. International tables of glycemic index and glycemic load values: 2008. Diabetes Care. 2008;31(12):2281-3. doi:10.2337/dc08-1239. PMID:18835944
- Axe J, Cole W. Heal Your Cells. Avery; 2026. ISBN 9798217181353. Grains section (sprouting and fermenting) and oxalates.
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Draft Guidance for Industry and FDA Staff: Whole Grain Label Statements.
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