Foods high in Arginine

Every food and ingredient below is ranked by measured Arginine content per 100 g, drawn live from 60 USDA FoodData Central measurements. Values are laboratory-analysed or survey-derived, not estimated.

Top 25 foods highest in Arginine

Ranked by Arginine per 100g, across Foundation Foods and FNDDS ingredients.

#	Food or ingredient	Source	Per 100g (G)
1	Flour, soy, defatted	Foundation Food	3.93
2	Peanut butter, creamy	Foundation Food	3.32
3	Sesame butter, creamy	Foundation Food	3.14
4	Flour, soy, full-fat	Foundation Food	2.94
5	Almond butter, creamy	Foundation Food	2.77
6	Nuts, pine nuts, raw	Foundation Food	2.66
7	Nuts, almonds, whole, raw	Foundation Food	2.46
8	Flaxseed, ground	Foundation Food	2.21
9	Nuts, walnuts, English, halves, raw	Foundation Food	2.02
10	Nuts, pecans, halves, raw	Foundation Food	1.36
11	Eggs, Grade A, Large, egg yolk	Foundation Food	1.12
12	Sausage, turkey, breakfast links, mild, raw	Foundation Food	1.03
13	Fish, pollock, raw	Foundation Food	0.93
14	Cheese, dry white, queso seco	Foundation Food	0.91
15	Sausage, breakfast sausage, beef, pre-cooked, unprepared	Foundation Food	0.83
16	Alaska Pollock, raw	Foundation Food	0.8042
17	Eggs, Grade A, Large, egg whole	Foundation Food	0.787
18	Eggs, Grade A, Large, egg white	Foundation Food	0.691
19	Restaurant, Chinese, sweet and sour pork	Foundation Food	0.54
20	Yogurt, Greek, plain, nonfat	Foundation Food	0.363
21	Restaurant, Latino, tamale, pork	Foundation Food	0.355
22	Restaurant, Latino, pupusas con frijoles (pupusas, bean)	Foundation Food	0.303
23	Mustard, prepared, yellow	Foundation Food	0.277
24	Soy milk, unsweetened, plain, shelf stable	Foundation Food	0.269
25	Cheese, ricotta, whole milk	Foundation Food	0.21

Lowest in Arginine

For contrast — the 10 lowest non-zero values on record, per 100g.

#	Food or ingredient	Source	Per 100g (G)
51	Nectarines, raw	Foundation Food	0.008
52	Pears, raw, bartlett	Foundation Food	0.012
53	Pears, raw, bartlett (Includes foods for USDA's Food Distribution Program)	Foundation Food	0.012
54	Peaches, yellow, raw	Foundation Food	0.017
55	Melons, cantaloupe, raw	Foundation Food	0.024
56	Butter, stick, salted	Foundation Food	0.035
57	Lettuce, cos or romaine, raw	Foundation Food	0.054
58	Carrots, frozen, unprepared	Foundation Food	0.06
59	Carrots, frozen, unprepared (Includes foods for USDA's Food Distribution Program)	Foundation Food	0.06
60	Figs, dried, uncooked	Foundation Food	0.07

More on Arginine

What Arginine is, how it is measured, and where these values come from.

Arginine nutrient reference →

Sourced from USDA FoodData Central — Foundation Foods; not yet through an editorial verification pass.

USDA release 2026-04-30. All values are per 100 g unless stated otherwise.