It just occurred to me that our usual silver-box cream cheese is probably not the best possible thing in terms of PUFAs.
A quick search for “grass-fed cream cheese” turned up Organic Valley brand, which claims to be “pasture raised.” I couldn’t immediately find an actual detailed analysis of the fatty acids in it. Anyone have any confidence that it is better than the big brand?
Not really. Ruminants (cows, sheep, goats) tend to convert PUFAs in their diet to saturated fats. There may be a better Omega 6/Omega 3 (or vice versa) ratio, but for that, the difference isn’t much.
Now, truly grass fed may have other benefits (eg, higher CLA, vitamin K2), but I don’t know enough about those.
Dairy cows are pretty much all ‘pasture raised’. And they’re all fed hay and grains in addition. So in my opinion the claim of ‘pasture raised’ is meaningless marketing jargon. The implication is that the other cows spend their entire lives in a barn with their heads chained to a feed trough and their rear ends hooked up to milking machines. They don’t.
As for cream cheese, it’s pretty much the same stuff no matter what brand. The primary differences seem to be what gums and other carb crap they add for ‘texture’. You can verify this by searching the USDA Food database. For example: Philly has twice the carbs as Walmart’s Great Value. Also, watch out for ‘serving size’ manipulation. The best thing about the USDA database is that you can specify data display per 100 grams.
For cream cheese, this includes the complete fatty acid profile:
I always choose the “cleanest” varieties, though sometimes those are the most expensive. I can find one cream that’s just cream, and it’s a few dollars more per quart than others. The bomb for me is a cream from a local farm, it’s superb. It’s double the cost of the one that’s just cream.
@amwassil That’s some impressive data. Just don’t look at it (has 3 times as much EVIL palmitic acid as angelic stearic acid).