The Nugget Newspaper - News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon

Sisters may be a small town, but big ideas and innovative products are produced here. Some highly respected nutraceutical and supplement manufacturers have chosen Sisters as their home base. Long-time community partner and neighbor, Metabolic Maintenance (MM), has been manufacturing professional-grade supplements for over 35 years, and locally in Sisters for 28.

According to Karla Cross-Green, MM’s director of marketing, what sets Metabolic Maintenance apart is its dedication to reliability, preservative- and excipient-free ingredients, and their diligence to third-party testing on all raw ingredients and finished products.

Cross-Green has been with the company since 2016.

“You can trust that Metabolic Maintenance will always strive to provide the best product deliverable to our customers. At the same time, we are always evolving. We will never settle on a formula or a raw material source because it’s good enough, we feel strongly about the fact that every nutrient in our bottles provides a health benefit,” said Cross-Green from her home office.

MM has been able to thrive during the pandemic because they are manufacturing products that support immune health. Not that they haven’t had to adjust and adhere to COVID-safety regulations. “Our establishment was already clean beyond regulatory requirements but we’re now doing even more to keep our employees safe in our facility,” said Cross-Green.

MM staff have seen a huge increase in sales of immune system categories including vitamins Ds, Cs, zinc and other immune-boosting supplements. “Our supplement, Acute Immune Boost, has been a good choice for people looking to boost their immune systems. We rolled it out right before the pandemic. We didn’t realize it was going to happen, but we’re fortunate to have had the foresight to create the product. It’s great for short-term use and rapid immune support. It’s a real heavy hitter,” said Cross-Green.

Maintaining MM’s high standards is more important than ever right now.

During the COVID pandemic, Cross-Green has seen many supplement companies taking shortcuts on quality by using unverified suppliers, not testing for microbials or contaminants, and not verifying potency.

“We will not waver on our values and compromise the health of our customers.

Our formulas are constantly being updated and refined in response to new research findings and feedback from doctors.

We are always developing new offerings as clinical evidence grows for their benefits.

We are proud to offer our local community 20% off our retail prices, just call ahead to place your order and a no-contact pickup will be provided at our lobby doors,” said Cross-Green.

Another asset to the Sisters business community in the health and wellness sector is Almsbio Nutraceuticals. Originally from Portland, founders Jeff Taber and his wife, Sandy Egge, moved to Sisters after she accepted a position with Laird Superfood as their Director of Research and Development and Director of Innovation. A clinician, Sandy created the Almsbio product line and has handed over company responsibilities to her husband after being recruited by Laird Superfood.

The Almsbio lab is in Sisters and their products are designed and tested here. Because of the volume they are producing, Almsbio manufactures their products in California.

“We’re proud to call Sisters home base,” said Taber, “And we’re happy to represent this area with our products.”

Almsbio is known for quality products made with the cleanest and best ingredients that don’t sacrifice standards in exchange for a better bottom line. Their premium-grade supplements are all liposomal formulations, which promote optimal bio-availability and allow more of the product to be uploaded and used by the body.

For the first seven years, the company sold directly to practitioners. Taber said business was good, but he was getting a lot of calls from people who didn’t have access to Almsbio products.

“Over time we were inundated with calls from patients who were no longer seeing that doctor but still wanted our product. So when we moved to Sisters we became a retail company so everybody can purchase our products,” said Taber.

Taber learned from his customers that, no matter how good a product is for the consumer, if it doesn’t taste good most people won’t take it long term.

“We make things that normally taste good, taste fantastic,” he said. A product that is extremely popular and a good case in point is Glutathione Mito-Therapy+.

“Glutathione is popular now with COVID because it’s protecting mitochondria. It’s an antioxidant. People are combining it with our liposomal Vitamin C. That’s a big way to combat COVID. Our products are not a cure for COVID but will help protect you from high toxic loads, viruses, and things that overload your cell with toxicity.”