Our story
It started with our Nonna.
Two brothers from Miami. A grandmother on the coast of Calabria. And a promise we made her that now covers a second formula: real Ceylon cinnamon, every milligram on the front of the pouch.
— Vincenzo & Francesco
We're Vincenzo and Francesco — two brothers, born and raised in Miami, with our hearts split between two homes. Every summer of our lives, we flew back to where our family began: a small town on the coast of Calabria, in southern Italy.
That's where our grandmother has lived her whole life — and where Metabella began. Our first formula, citrus bergamot with olive leaf, came from that coastline.
This page is about our second one. And it started, like everything we do, with a promise we made to her.
The rule we never break
Nonna's one condition
Nonna has always refused anything she couldn't understand. Not because she doesn't care about her health — because nobody would ever tell her straight what was in the pills she was offered.
So when we started Metabella, we made her one promise: every milligram goes on the front of the pouch. Nothing hidden, nothing rounded, nothing buried in a proprietary blend.
Blood sugar is one of the numbers almost everyone over fifty is told to "keep an eye on." And cinnamon is the first thing most people reach for. That is where our second formula started — and where that promise nearly sent us straight back out of the spice aisle.
"Tutta chimica."
All chemicals, she'd say, waving a hand at the whole idea. If we were going to bring her anything, it had to be real — and she had to be able to read exactly what was in it.
Nonna, every single summer
What we found
Most cinnamon isn't the cinnamon you think
Walk down any spice aisle in America and you will see "cinnamon." What you won't see is which kind. Most of it is cassia — harder, darker, cheaper, and according to the NIH the most common type sold in the United States and Canada.
Cassia also carries coumarin, a natural compound that in larger amounts can strain the liver of sensitive people. Germany's Federal Institute for Risk Assessment puts cassia at around 3,000 mg of coumarin per kilogram on average — just 2 g of cassia a day can already reach the tolerable daily limit for a 132-lb adult.
Ceylon cinnamon — Cinnamomum verum, the "true" cinnamon from Sri Lanka — contains only traces. It costs more to grow and harvest, which is exactly why you rarely find it in a capsule.
If it was going to carry our family's name, it had to be Ceylon.
To the source
True cinnamon comes from one place
Ceylon cinnamon grows in Sri Lanka. Its bark is peeled thin and rolled into many fine, papery layers — nothing like the single thick curl of cassia. Every softgel we make starts with authentic Ceylon cinnamon from Sri Lanka, and nothing else.
Then came the question Nonna would have asked first: how much? A sprinkle on your oatmeal is lovely. It is also a small, unknown amount of whatever bark happened to be in the jar. We wanted a number we could print.
What we built
One softgel. One ingredient. Every number printed.
We concentrated Ceylon cinnamon 12:1 — twelve parts of raw bark into one part of extract — so a single softgel carries 600 mg of extract, the equivalent of 7,200 mg of bark. Nearly a tablespoon of true Ceylon, in one small softgel.
We pre-dissolve it in MCT oil from coconut instead of pressing dry powder into a capsule. No powder, no aftertaste, nothing to measure. Every batch is third-party lab tested, and the pouch says exactly what is inside.
We're not going to hand you anyone's lab numbers and imply you'll get the same ones — one family is not a clinical trial. The research on cinnamon, including its gaps, is laid out in full on our Ceylon science page.
"Perché lo tenete per voi?"
Why are you keeping this to yourselves? She asked it about our first formula, and it is the reason there is a second one. There are so many people with the very same worries.
Nonna, and she was right
In every softgel
The numbers we print, because she asked us to
Grazie, Nonna. Real cinnamon, the honest way.
True Ceylon cinnamon from Sri Lanka, concentrated 12:1 in one softgel a day — every milligram printed on the front of the pouch, exactly the way she made us promise.
— Vincenzo & Francesco
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Individual results vary. Metabella is a dietary supplement. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. If you take medication for blood sugar, or have a liver condition, speak with your doctor before beginning any supplement.