← The FormularyLong gameLycopene
Also known as Tomato carotenoidThe tomato's best argument, and its weakest.
This is the ingredient in the formula with the weakest hand, and pretending otherwise would be the easy lie. The story starts well: men who eat more tomatoes have lower rates of prostate problems in population studies, and lycopene concentrates in prostate tissue. Then it stalls. When the FDA reviewed the evidence for lycopene supplements it found no credible support and refused the health claim — allowing only a heavily qualified line about eating tomatoes, and explicitly excluding supplements from it. Our position: it is a legitimate antioxidant, it belongs in this category by convention, and the honest version of the advice is to eat cooked tomatoes with olive oil, which is cheaper and better evidenced than any capsule.
The red carotenoid pigment in tomatoes, watermelon and pink grapefruit — an antioxidant the body does not make and gets entirely from food.
Lycopene concentrates in prostate tissue more than in most organs, which is the observation that started the interest. As an antioxidant it neutralises reactive oxygen species; whether that translates into anything measurable in a man who already eats tomatoes is precisely the question the trials have not answered.
Contributes antioxidant activity to a prostate-wellness formula. It is there for the category it belongs to, not for a proven effect of its own.
Anyone taking a prostate-wellness formula and reading the panel closely. If lycopene is the reason you are buying something, buy passata instead.
Daily with food — carotenoids are fat-soluble, so a meal with some fat in it does more for absorption than the milligram number does. Cooked tomato sources beat raw for availability.
Nothing you will notice, which is the truthful answer for an antioxidant at maintenance amounts. Judge the formula as a whole; do not judge this ingredient.
Grade C. Observational evidence for tomato-rich diets is reasonably consistent. Randomised evidence for isolated lycopene supplements is not, and the FDA's 2005 review concluded there was no credible evidence for lycopene and reduced prostate cancer risk, permitting only a qualified claim for tomatoes themselves that explicitly excluded supplements. Nothing here is a cancer claim.
Read the labelNot a treatment or preventive for any prostate condition, and not a cancer claim of any kind. Very high intakes can turn skin faintly orange — harmless and reversible.
Evidence grades describe how well an ingredient is studied — A well-supported, C emerging — not a promise of results. Educational, not medical advice. Doses are typical ranges; follow the label on the product.