heavy whipping cream... what do you buy and where?
 

most have these ingredients i'm not used to seeing:

Heavy Cream, Milk, Contains Less Than 0.5% Of: Carrageenan, Mono And Diglycerides, Polysorbate 80.

what do you use, and where do you get it?

:wave:

If you have access to Trader Joe's, check there. Their organic cream is ultra-pasteurized, which I avoid, but their regular cream is fine, and is usually cheaper than other places.

I'll check them out - thanks.

I think organic and local versions usually have fewer preservatives in them. The carageenen is just a thickener made from seaweed. I'm not sure why cream needs it, but it's not a weird chemical.

Organic often is ultra pasteurized which makes cream harder to whip, and, IMO, changes the taste for the worse.
Carrageenan, as you say, is a type of seaweed, but I seem to remember reading somewhere that it is altered significantly before being used as a thickener in processed foods. Cream doesn't need it, and I would not buy cream with it for that reason alone. Why encourage companies to mess with our food by telling them (with our money) that we will buy it even if we disapprove?

I didn't think carageenan was a big deal until I started drinking tea with Aldi cream every day. I got sicker and sicker with pelvic cramps, gained 3-4 pounds a week and ran fevers. I thought I was going to die. I had a gyn exam but the problem was not solved. I finally figured out the caregeenan exacerbated the cramping after, with the help of the gyno, figuring out it was gastro symptoms and not uterine cramps. I immediately gave up carageenan. I never got diagnosed but I think the carageenan was causing chronic diverticulitis. After I gave up carageenan, I never got sick again unless I slipped and had some accidentally. It makes me SO sick.

I second Trader Joe's REGULAR cream. I believe Whole Foods also has an option but I can't remember the brand.

I buy Horizon organic. It does have guar gum in it (I wrote and asked why, they didn't answer).

Bob

where do you get it?

Publix supermarket

Horizon store locator:
https://www.horizon.com/store-locator

Ingredients:
Organic Grade A Cream, Gellan Gum

What is gellan gum?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gellan_gum

I don't know why they put the gellan gum in there, but Organic Valley brand (which I don't think is quite as good) does the same thing. It is used as a thickening agent, but does heavy whipping cream need that?

At least it doesn't seem harmful.

Bob

Gellan Gum hurts my GI and makes the cream pour out like glue. I can really tell the difference in thickness. It also doesn't blend well with my coffee and rises to the top. It leaves a thick coating in the coffee cup too.

Seems to be OK on my GI. I can't find an organic cream without it, and the non-organics have way too many ingredients that I can't pronounce - plus I have a prostate and I've read too many things about milk made with rBGH negatively affecting it - so organic is a must here in the US.

I wish I could find just organic (or non GMO) heavy whipping cream with no other ingredients.

Bob

Can't you just buy whipping cream in the US with nothing else added?

Not that I've found. I've gone to supermarkets and 'health food' stores. Everything I've found either has gellan gum or worse.

A lot of heavy whipping cream I've seen has milk added and carrageenan or gum added for a thickener to make up for the milk. I avoid those.

So far the best I've found is either Horizon or Organic Valley, but have the gellan gum in them.

I just wrote to Horizon and asked why then need the gum, I'll be surprised if I get an answer.

Bob

Bob, I have no idea how it is in Florida, but here on the west coast more and more dairies have been following consumer demand and not using rBGH on their cows. Trader Joe's, at least out here, does not source their dairy products from farmers who use this hormone. Even their regular, non organic stuff. Our local dairy, based in the small city where I live, but sourcing their milk from eastern Oregon, has, in recent years, proclaimed itself rBGH free. For awhile they had additives in their cream, but in the last year or so that is no longer the case. Their organic cream is still ultra pasteurized, so I buy the regular. There is a dairy in Northern California that sells organic cream, not ultra pasteurized, in glass bottles; I can find that in a store an hour's drive away, and sometimes buy it, but it is expensive, and obviously not easily available, so I am OK with the local dairy's non organic, but also non rBGH, cream. About 20 some years ago I couldn't find any cream at all that wasn't ultra pasteurized, even TJ's, and just didn't buy any. I wasn't LC then, but did enjoy cream on occasion, but not for those several years. You have probably done your homework, but still, in my experience, dairys change their rules periodically so it is worth keeping an eye out for changes.

There was one small store that was selling locally produced cream and I was so happy until I began finding purchases, several times in a row that was border-line sour. I gave it several tries but got tired of returning them.
So they're adding the thickening compounds to compensate for adding milk, that's too bad. Why can't they just give us what we want, pure cream.