Preliminary exploration reveals unadulterated cream cheese is a rare thing...
Now that I've gone on more of a treasure hunt than I ever expected, I can't find it in rural USA. Though I am more fortunate than most, as we have a popular resort town near enough, and they add some crucial variety to local options.
Here's the ingredients for the one I was getting, a store brand: Pasteurized Milk And Cream, Cheese Culture, Salt, Guar Gum, Carob Bean Gum
Or the even cheaper other store brand: Pasteurized milk and cream, Cheese culture, Salt, Stabilizers (carob bean and/or xanthan and/or guar gums)
However, the organic store brand was only 50% more: Organic Pasteurized Milk And Cream, Salt, Organic Carob Bean Gum, Cheese Culture.
At the health food store, it was 250% more, and these were the ingredients: Organic Pasteurized Milk And Cream, Organic Whey, Cheese Culture, Salt, Organic Locust Bean Gum.
I get to upgrade to the organic store brand, and feel grateful for the fancy store
Carob/locust bean gums are the same thing. And being from plants means they can be considered an organic ingredient, it seems. Because, according to
this useful article on "Food GUMS":
Quote:
Natural Gums Healthier than Cellulose Gum or Carrageenan
One positive about gum additives such as xanthan, guar, locust bean (carob), gellan, and tara is their superiority to the similarly used additive carrageenan.
Also commonly used and in a wide variety of processed foods even USDA Organic, carrageenan is a suspected carcinogen that should be avoided as much as possible. It is heavily used in pet food too!
These various gums also appear to be clearly superior to polysorbate 80 and carboxymethyl cellulose (often known as cellulose gum) and other industrial emulsifiers and thickeners.
If you are choosing between one brand that uses carrageenan, cellulose gum, or polysorbate 80 and another brand that uses any of the gum additives below, choose the brand with one of the gums below. It will be of higher quality in most cases.
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And there's THIS:
Quote:
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This is problematic for consumers with allergies. For example, residual wheat gluten has been discovered in xanthan gum produced using wheat.
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And manufacturers don't tell you what medium is used to make it.
Which is welcome news and I'm going to roll with it. Since cream cheese is a staple of my diet, as the only fermented animal fat I can find, this is greatly reassuring. Against all odds, I have found a GUM I can feel soothed by consuming:
Quote:
Compared to xanthan, locust bean gum is much better tolerated by infants. A study published by the World Journal of Clinical Pediatrics found that infants tolerate carob-bean gum thickened formulas extremely well even those with reflux.
The locust bean gum enhanced formula successfully increased the bodyweight of the babies in the study as well. The Journal of Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology concluded further that locust bean gum is safe for its intended therapeutic use in full-term infants to treat uncomplicated reflux.
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It seems that safer gums have been substituted in some products, thanks to studies. The only warnings seems to be from over-consuming any "gum" as a diet trick, using fiber to give them volume. Which does sound like a terrible idea.