Kiwifruit and constipation
What 6 graded rows on kiwifruit agree on for constipation, and where they differ. Counted side by side, never averaged.
Consensus finder Rows from the Kiwifruit page, reviewed Oct 21, 2026 How it decides
What the rows agree on
Each block and row is one graded row from the Kiwifruit page, with its PubMed record.
Your question
Kiwifruit and constipation
6 rows · 1,092 peopleMostly an improvement: 5 of 6 rows, and most of the people. 1 had mixed results.
- CGrade C× 6
- Rows
- 6
- Trials
- 12
- At least: a review without a trial count
- People
- 1,092
- Pooled reviews may count some twice
What the rows share
From the rowsThe best-graded row, grade C, is a meta-analysis of 399 people (2022) and found an improvement.
The rows run from 56 to 399 people, published from 2021 to 2025: 2 pooled reviews and 4 single studies.
The rows
5 improved · 1 mixed- CGrade CConstipation: bowel movements, pain and straining · Improved
Meta-analysis, 7 studies · n 399 · 2022 · Adults with constipation in 7 RCTs (82% women)
Varied by trial · Varied by trial
Vs placebo, weekly spontaneous bowel movements rose by 1.36 (CI -0.44 to 3.16, low certainty) and abdominal pain fell (moderate certainty); vs psyllium, bowel movements rose by 1.01 a week and stools were softer.
- CGrade CStool frequency vs psyllium (pooled trials) · Improved
Meta-analysis · n 192 · 2024 · Adults with chronic constipation in trials comparing kiwifruit with psyllium
Varied by trial · Varied by trial
Kiwifruit gave 0.36 more bowel movements a week than psyllium (95% CI 0.24 to 0.48); prunes did not differ from psyllium.
- CGrade CComplete bowel movements and gut comfort (psyllium as comparator) · Improved
Crossover RCT · n 184 · 2023 · Healthy adults (63), functional constipation (60) and IBS-C (61) in New Zealand, Italy and Japan
2 green kiwifruit a day (psyllium 7.5 g a day) · 4 weeks per arm, 4-week washout
From baseline, kiwifruit added 1.53 complete spontaneous bowel movements a week in functional constipation and 1.73 in IBS-C, a clinically relevant gain, and improved gut comfort scores; bowel movement frequency did not differ from psyllium in any week (full text); no significant adverse events.
- CGrade CChronic constipation vs psyllium and prunes · Improved
RCT · n 75 · 2021 · US adults with chronic constipation (87% women)
Not stated in the abstract · 4 weeks
Responder rates were similar across all three; kiwifruit improved stool consistency and straining, had the fewest adverse events and the least dissatisfaction (p = 0.02).
- CGrade CConstipation symptoms vs psyllium · Improved
Crossover RCT · n 56 · 2022 · Adults with functional constipation (11), IBS-C (13) and healthy controls (32)
2 gold kiwifruit a day · 4 weeks per arm
Both reduced constipation scores (p = 0.004) and raised weekly complete bowel movements (p = 0.014); gold kiwifruit also reduced straining (p = 0.021).
- CGrade CIBS with constipation: bowel habit and pain (extract) · Mixed
RCT · n 186 · 2025 · Adults with IBS-C (Rome III criteria), multicenter
1,150 mg a day (575 mg twice daily) for 4 weeks, then 575 mg a day for 4 weeks · 8 weeks
The combined primary end point was not met (24% vs 26%), but more people on the extract had more frequent bowel movements (54% vs 36%), better stool form (87% vs 73%) and less pain (74% vs 59%).