Cream Cheese Issues

Not sure if this is the right board for this subject (if any staff viewing this has a better idea please feel free to move it or add it to whatever forum is most appropriate) but here goes.

Cream cheese is giving me serious but fairly brief abdominal pain and diarrhea. I'm not lactose intolerant (milk has far mlre lactose and doesn't bother me) but that seems to be the only issue I am able to dig up on Google.

I've tried both Lucerne and Philadelphia, I would be willing to try something of better quality, but it's not available at my local stores so I haven't bothered yet.

Any suggestions for further research into what my actual issue might be would be greatly appreciated.

You may have developed a sensitivity to large doses of butterfat.  There are people in my family with this, they call it "The Mings stomach."  

If you can tolerate small amounts, but not a generous schmeer, that may be what's going on.

Julia Winter wrote:You may have developed a sensitivity to large doses of butterfat.  There are people in my family with this, they call it "The Mings stomach."  

If you can tolerate small amounts, but not a generous schmeer, that may be what's going on.

Heh, I can rule that out as well.

I'm trialing Keto (only reason I actually started experimenting with Cream Cheese) and sometimes I have a slice of refrigerated butter straight as a snack with zero harm.

Thank you for the idea though Julia.

Two years ago, dairy started hating me. I blamed early menopause which is likely not your problem😏

I have been trying some vegan cream cheeses. Some are better than others. Sometimes I go ahead and eat the real stuff and take a couple dairy-ease tablets. It usually works but not always.  Worth a try.

Do the brands you have tried use stabilizers like guar gum, or carob?
You might be reacting to those.

Lucerne- stabilizers (Carob Bean and/or Xanthan and/or Guar Gums), Potato starch-modified, natural flavor, Vitamin A Palmitate

Philadephia- Stabilizers (Xanthan and/or Carob Bean and/or Guar Gums), Sorbic Acid as a Preservative, Vitamin A Palmitate


Those are the ingredients they both list that I don't think actually belong in cream cheese (I don't make cheese, but they look suspect.) and both of those do include an apparently variable assortment of stablizers.

This site https://www.toxinless.com/cream-cheese has a pretty complete list of cream cheeses with ingredients. In addition to those which have no stablizers there's a forth stablizer used instead of the ones above (Locust bean gum) It might be worth trying one of those to see if you still have a reaction.

It's likely just the Keto diet. It is notorious for causing gastro-intestinal issues. The timing with the cream cheese might just be a coincidence. Don't get me wrong I think a Keto diet can be helpful in lots of ways, but it's difficult. I had to give it up because I was unhappy with my food and in constant pain.

You could try making cream cheese yourself, without stabilizers, but I never get it as firm as I would like it, and won't work the same as commercial cream cheese in keto recipes.

You can also get the gums on there own, and test if one of them is giving you problems. They are naturally derived, but that doesn't mean much. Carob and Guar are plant based and xanthan is bacteria based. Good luck.

Stacy Witscher wrote:It's likely just the Keto diet.

Not exactly but you were right to draw my attention away from the cream cheese.

The verdict is in now that I've been 3 days off cream cheese and it turns out that was a red herring.

It was the MCT oil I tried.

Whole coconut oil for me going forward.

Thank you everyone for your help.