These healthy sweet potato fries are SO much better for you and are a more natural alternative to your favorite greasy fries. No toxic fried oils here!

Healthy Sweet Potato Fries! A much healthier and more natural alternative to your favorite greasy fries. No toxic fried oils here! #healthyfood #healthyfries | www.jillzguerin.com

Who doesn’t love fries?! They’re truly a classic. But, unfortunately, the fries you’ll normally find at restaurants are terrible for your health. But not these healthy sweet potato fries!

Sadly, french fries are usually fried in canola oil, which is one the most toxic oils you can put into your body.

Why should you avoid canola oil?

Canola oil is actually a newer variety of rapeseed oil made in Canada in the 1970s. Although there’s still controversy in the modern world about whether canola oil is damaging, most holistic health practitioners and functional medicine doctors unanimously agree that’s it’s harmful.

Canola crops are usually heavily sprayed with pesticides, which include glyphosate, the main ingredient in the weedkiller Roundup. Glyphosate has been linked to many health issues, including cancer.

Not to mention, canola oil is manufactured in a harmful way: by using chemicals (hexane), heating the oil too high (causing free radicals – these can mess with your DNA), and then bleaching, YES BLEACHING, the oil. None of this is healthy for us.

Lastly, canola oil includes hydrogenated trans fats. We all know these aren’t healthy. Unfortunately, sometimes the trans fat content is not accurately listed on the nutrition facts of a bottle. This is because the FDA allows food manufacturers to state 0% trans fat if it contains less than .5g/serving. However, let’s be honest, we’re often eating more than what’s listed on the bottle as one serving.

Because of these reasons, canola oil causes inflammation in the body and can lead to heart disease and strokes. It can even damage our brain.

What makes these fries healthier?

Well, we, of course, aren’t frying our potatoes in canola oil. Instead, we are baking them in the oven in avocado oil, a much healthier alternative! Because they’re cooked in a different way, they do have a slightly different texture, but they are still so yummy!

You can definitely make this recipe with regular potatoes instead of sweet potatoes if you prefer, but I personally LOVE the taste of sweet potatoes and they have a ton of great health benefits. My personal favorite variety of sweet potatoes is JAPANESE SWEET POTATOES. They’re naturally creamy, very sweet, and so delicious. That’s what’s photographed here!

I love to serve my sweet potato fries with either Primal Kitchen Foods Ketchup, a cleaner and healthier ketchup with no added sugars, or guacamole!

Ingredients for Healthy Sweet Potato Fries:

Sweet Potato
Avocado oil
Spices: sea salt, black pepper, rosemary, garlic powder (or minced garlic), and nutritional yeast (can omit – but it gives it a slightly cheesy flavor).

How to Make Healthy Sweet Potato Fries:

Don’t worry, it’s simple! Cut a large sweet potato into fry-like shapes. Just be sure to cut carefully so you don’t cut off a finger!

Mix the fries in a bowl with avocado oil so all of the fries are lightly coated. Then add the spices and mix together again. I don’t have measurements for these as it’s really up to you, however, I recommend a heavier dose of spices if you ask me! When I cook it myself, I try to ensure that all the fries are nicely coated in spices.

Then lay the fries on a parchment paper-lined pan and be sure to leave a little bit of space between fries. Leaving enough space will help them to get crispier on the outside. You can place the fries on two separate pans if needed!

Then bake in the oven, flipping halfway, and finish with a few minutes on broil!

Scroll down to get the full recipe or pin it for later!