A customer named Kathy B. living in Bluff, IL recently wrote this email to Seagate regarding her possible interest in purchasing Seagate’s Lycopene and whether it is the same as another brand called Lyc-O-Mato.
Comments: Hi, Is your tomato product the same as lycomato? My friend of mine has high blood pressure. I looked up on i-health-tube, for a supplement instead of BP medicine. Does your product work the same way? Thank you! Kathy
We frequently receive questions from customers trying to compare our products with competing health food companies. Normally we ignore those questions because we do not wish to engage in the comparisons with other competing brands. However, in this case the differences between Seagate’s lycopene and Lyc-O-Mato are important to discuss.
Seagate Replies — Dear Kathy- Seagate grows our own (Roma) tomatoes on our own farm, without the use of any pesticides or chemicals. The tomatoes are then harvested and brought to our factory in Ensenada, Baja California where then are washed and then freeze-dried and ground into a powder. No chemicals are used in this process. It happens that the freeze-dried tomato powder is naturally rich in lycopene, which allows us to call the product “Lycopene-15”, for the 15 mg of lycopene that you will get per serving from our capsules.
Lyc-O-Mato is a registered trademark of an Israeli company which also claims to grow their own tomatoes. They list in their application to the EEC for evaluation as a food ingredient in Europe the use of the solvent -ethyl acetate- in their processing, and also show a maximum residual of 50 mg/kg residual of this solvent in their Lyc-O-Mato product. Unfortunately many States in the U.S. list ethlyl acetate solvent as a “hazardous substance”.
It has been Seagate’s position since we entered the health food industry over 20 years ago, not to use any chemicals or pesticides in the production of any of our products, since we are a “health food” producer, not a chemical company.
In answer to the second part of your question regarding blood pressure, there are two additional products that we consider of equal or greater importance as part of a program to attack the issue of elevated blood pressure:
Olive Oil – which the FDA considers so important that it even allows this statement on olive oil labels – ” Limited and not conclusive scientific evidence suggests that eating about 2 tablespoons (23 grams) of olive oil daily may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease due to the monounsaturated fat in olive oil. To achieve this possible benefit, olive oil is to replace a similar amount of saturated fat and not increase the total number of calories you eat in a day.”
Omega 3 Shark Liver Oil – which the FDA allows this statement on omega-3 labels – “Supportive but not conclusive research shows that consumption of EPA and DHA omega-3 fatty acids may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease.”
Thank you
Seagate Customer Service
We did not put the following comment into our response to Kathy’s email. However, it is very important to understand our position in dealing with customer questions regarding their high blood pressure. Many if not most people approach natural health foods and supplements as substitutes for getting off their prescribed blood pressure meds. Essentially they are looking for a natural magical pill as opposed to the prescribed pharmaceutical pill that will make their blood pressure go back to normal and fix what has been a lifetime of abuse that had put them into this condition in the first place. It is our position that in order to truly attack and correct this problem, one needs to dramatically make a difference in their entire lifestyle. Get rid of the junk foods, processed foods, bad habits (alcohol and tobacco), carbs and sugars. Start on a regular daily exercise program (if you are physically able) of at least one-half hour of cardio each day. Don’t eat foods that you cannot identify such as foods that come prepackaged. Eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, fish, chicken and some meat. It took many years to get your blood pressure to this level. There is no magical pill that will make everything go away. However, the good news is that you can take control of your life, eating habits, and exercise. With some time and dedication you can make this problem disappear.
