Lyc-O-Mato FAQ’s
What is Lyc-O-Mato®?
Lyc-O-Mato® is an all-natural extract of red, ripe tomatoes. Lyc-O-Mato® is valued as a dietary supplement and functional food ingredient because it provides a full complement of tomato carotenoids and other nutrients to benefit good health. The synergy of the natural tomato lycopene, phytoene, phytofluene, beta-carotene, phytosterols, and vitamin E results in enhanced activity and this means greater health benefits for you.
What is lycopene?®?
Lycopene, the major carotenoid found in the tomato, gives the tomato its typical red color. It is an important antioxidant with a unique ability to inactivate or “quench” free radicals that can damage our cells.
What are carotenoids??
Carotenoids are a family of naturally occurring compounds found in many plants. Lycopene and beta-carotene, both found in Lyc-O-Mato®, are among the major carotenoids that occur in appreciable quantities in human blood and tissues and are believed to be important to our health and well being.
What is the role of carotenoids in health?
Carotenoids are antioxidants. They play an important role in health maintenance by helping to reduce the impact and minimize the oxidative damage caused by surplus free radicals in the body. These surplus free radicals result from normal cell metabolism, pollution, smoking and other environmental exposures. The mixture of tocopherols naturally occurring in Lyc-O-Mato® also acts as a potent antioxidant.
What are free radicals?
Free radicals are highly reactive toxic by-products of the bio-chemical redox reactions that occur as a part of normal cell metabolism and as a result of exposure to damaging environmental influences. Free radicals attack cells and can cause damage to cell membranes, DNA and proteins. Free radicals are believed to be the cause of a wide range of degenerative diseases.
What protects the organism from free radicals?
The healthy organism is equipped with a built-in defense system designed to neutralize harmful free radicals which attack our tissues and cell components. This system utilizes antioxidants and free radical quenchers (neutralizers), which we obtain from the food and dietary supplements we eat. Lycopene is considered by scientists to be the most effective free radical quencher and antioxidant, and thus an important part of the diet.
Who should take supplements containing Lyc-O-Mato®?
Lyc-O-Mato® is a dietary supplement recommended for adults as a valuable part of a daily health care regimen that includes a healthy diet. As the natural mechanism that protects us from free radicals weakens with age, older adults need to insure that tomato phytonutrients are a part of their daily diet.
Why is Lyo-O-Mato® standardized to lycopene content?
Lycopene was chosen as the marker for standardization because its unique molecular structure makes it a highly effective antioxidant and biological quencher of free radicals.
Standardization assures you that each and every capsule of Lyc-O-Mato® contains the same quantity of lycopene in addition to a natural ratio of all the other important bioactive phytonutrients found in the tomato oleoresin.
Mato® compare to just plain lycopene?
Lyc-O-Mato® tomato extract contains all the natural richness of the tomato: lycopene, phytoene, phytofluene, beta-carotene, tocopherols and other important bioactive phytochemicals.
Lycopene alone, whether natural - from tomatoes or fungus - or synthetic, is… just plain lycopene, providing less of a health benefit. It is the synergy of the multi-phytonutrients found in tomatoes, tomato products and in Lyc-O-Mato® that is responsible for the health benefits that have been reported in epidemiological and clinical studies that were conducted on tomatoes and tomato products.
Research by Drs. Levi and Sharoni quite effectively demonstrates that lycopene is not therapeutically effective when present at the relatively low levels normally found in the blood even after supplementation. Effectiveness at low lycopene concentrations is attainable only when the lycopene is presented along with other phytonutrients naturally present in tomato and tomato extract. This occurs because the presence of the other phytonutrients enhances the effectiveness of the lycopene.
Also important from a practical health perspective are recent scientific findings that indicate that lycopene bioavailability is enhanced by the presence of the other natural phytonutrients that are found in the tomato extract.
How do I know that Lyc-O-Mato® is safe to take?
Lyc-O-Mato® is a natural extract of tomato. Nothing has been added to the goodness of the tomato that nature has provided and that people have consumed for generations. In addition, Lyc-O-Mato® has undergone extensive checks for safety. An independent evaluation of the safety studies has validated that Lyc-O-Mato® is safe for its intended use as a dietary supplement. Lyc-O-Mato®, contains only tomato extract produced from ripe non-GMO fruit. Lyc-O-Mato® is produced in an ISO 9002 approved plant, following very strict quality assurance guidelines.