It’s hard to find tortilla chips without seed oils. That’s why we went looking. And we found some good tortilla chips! Check them out.
| Image | Chips | Cooking fat | Flour | Artificial additives? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Healthy Traditions Tortilla Chips | Coconut oil | Corn | No |
 | Xochitl Organic White Tortilla Chips | Palm olein oil | Corn | No |
| Masa tortilla chips | Beef tallow | Corn | No |
 | Siete Family Foods, Chip Tortilla Grain Free | Avocado oil | Cassava, Coconut | No |
The two best ones are the Healthy Traditions chips, made with coconut oil, and the Masa tortilla chips, made with just corn, tallow, and salt. Tallow is a very good ingredient.
However these brands are expensive and so the Xochitl brand chips, made with palm oil, are what we prefer.
Siete also makes good tortilla chips without seed oil. They use cassava flour and coconut flour which is good if you are on a paleo diet and need to avoid corn.
All four tortilla chip brands don’t use any chemical additives.
What’s so bad about seed oil?
Seed oils are the industrially produced oils that processed foods use. They are oils like soybean oil, canola oil, or sunflower oil. People have only been consuming lots of these oils in the last few decades and simultaneously we are experiencing a huge rise in degenerative conditions and obesity. Many researchers think that these conditions are being caused by the seed oils, which are not really natural food ingredients.
Seed oils may be the worst in fried foods like chips
Fried foods, like tortilla chips, are especially bad when they are made with seed oils. Here’s the theory that many researchers have about why seed oils are so bad: Seed oils apparently become unstable at the heat of frying. Then when you eat them you are consuming damaged oil that was never really meant to be eaten. These damaged oils get into your body and junk up everything they touch. They especially harm your metabolism. So that’s the theory. You can see more about the science of seed oil’s dangers on Dr. Cate Shanahan, MD’s website: https://drcate.com/pufa-project/
Tallow is a good oil for frying
The tortilla chips with no seed oil that we’ve selected here are made with beef tallow, palm oil, or avocado oil. These are not seed oils. Beef tallow is a traditional fat and it is very low in PUFA (which is the unstable part of seed oils and one of the main reasons seed oils are bad). Beef tallow is a terrific choice for frying food like chips. It can handle the heat of frying without burning as well, which is important. Not all of the good fats can handle the heat of frying. For example, butter is a wonderful healthy food, but it starts to smoke when it’s heated a lot and this makes it potentially harmful to your health. But beef tallow doesn’t have that problem.
Avocado oil is also a good oil
Some companies are starting to turn away from seed oils. This is very good! A lot of them are using avocado oil instead. Avocado oil is a pretty good oil that can handle the heat of frying pretty well, and if you’re vegetarian it is a good oil for you because it isn’t an animal product like beef tallow. Avocado oil is relatively low PUFA (though not as much as beef tallow) and is overall a fine choice for frying seed oil free tortilla chips, as long as the factory changes the oil frequently.
Is palm oil a seed oil?
One of the tortilla chip brands here is made with organic palm olein oil. This is not a seed oil, it is relatively low in PUFA, and it is natural and traditional in tropical regions. It is 10% PUFA, which is similar to olive oil’s PUFA percentage. Palm oil is concerning for environmental reasons, but the tortilla chip brand we recommend here states that their palm oil is from environmentally friendly sources.
Looking for other snacks made without seed oils?
Our goal is to help you find the snacks you love but without the seed oils or chemicals. We’ve actually found lots of good snack brands out there. Check out our guides here:
Where to find snacks without seed oils (Chips and more!)
We hope our articles can help you enjoy your snacks and stay healthy!
OMGOSH! I’ve hit the Motherload of health sources! At a time when EVERYTHING has seed oils, I never thought I’d eat chips again. Yippeekayah! Thank you so much 💛💪✨
Yay! Glad we could help you!
The Masa and Siete are both great brands, I especially love the Masa, but there is another brand as well that is EXCELLENT, it’s the Healthy Traditions brand and their chips are made in coconut oil, and source their corn from a region in Mexico where glyphosate use is illegal (they still test it to be glyphosate residue free as well). Just thought I’d share as this is another really great brand and product! https://healthytraditions.com/collections/tortilla-chips/
Good to know, thank you!
Thank you for this page. I have been looking for chips without seed oils. This is very helpful! They even sell the Xochitl near me. yay!
Thanks for the great info 🙏 Xochitl is available at local supermarkets, but I was looking for even “healthier” alternatives. I ordered Masa. Sure it is expensive but it’s my health investment 😉