Sky Kubby, author of The Raw Chocolate Diet, started his company, Medicinal Foods, with the intention of helping people transition to more whole, live and raw foods.

Sky has relied on indigenous wisdom and formulated a line of cutting-edge health and wellness products, “The Ancient Future of Food. Using nutrient-dense Superfood Chocolate, he opens the door to the heart, offering Healthy Living Tips, Protocols and Recipes. Having experienced health issues throughout his early life, Sky discovered his path with healing plants and how we can deepen our relationship to them as Medicinal Foods.

He now experiences Radiant Health and lives with his wife and daughter on a solar-powered tropical fruit tree farm on the Big Island of Hawaii. Together they offer Cacao Ceremonies and participate in the WWOOFing program, helping interns learn to live closer to the Earth. Enjoy his exclusive Business Heroine interview…

BH: You eat healthy, live off the grid in Hawaii, and help others learn to homestead. What inspired you to live such a healthy pioneering lifestyle?

Sky: My parents ran a children’s summer camp called Earth Camp One in Northern California in the late 60’s and early 70’s. They pioneered healthy lifestyle of Yoga, Organic Gardening, Astronomy, Arts and Crafts, Backpacking and Mountaineering. They also prepared crazy new foods for the time – Tofu and Granola. Earth Camp was an idyllic setting with a giant spring that gushed out and fed a creek, pond and waterfall. I was delivered at home as campers’ held hands around the A-frame, singing “Happy Birthday” – truly a time of great awakening on the Planet. I guess some of their energy rubbed off on me.

Growing up sick with chronic Asthma, lung and candida infections set me on my quest for health early on. I found “The Yoga of Herbs” on my parents bookshelf and began studying Chinese, Ayurvedic and other ancient healing modalities to get me off of the Pharmaceutical drugs doctors told me I would never live without.

And my love affair with chocolate started when I was 7 years old, and I took a vow to Cacao.

A few years earlier, my Dad, Steve Kubby, was forced to sell the camp due to his rare form of Adrenal Cancer. Later he would survive this deadly cancer that doctors all over the world attributed to his use of another plant medicine, Cannabis. In fact my dad helped write the law for medical marijuana in California, and his case set precedence for all other cases and the legalization and decriminalization in Colorado and Washington.

As a child I lived nearby the old summer camp with my mother, Rebecca Maidman. We had a piece of land in the temperate rainforest of the most southern Cascade mountain range, with a big creek and garden. We lived in an old school bus and the small house built off to the side. My Mom canned food from her garden for the winter, and I hauled drinking water up from the creek.

My most indulgent snack was dried pineapple … and although it was exciting and I loved it when I could open up that big gallon-sized mason jar and pry out one of those sugary dried rings, I grew tired of it.

So my over-the-top excitement came on Easter day when I was to receive the ultimate treat – a chocolate bunny!

It was Easter morning and we were on our way to the hot springs. We were walking through a meadow and I had my chocolate bunny in my hands. I had convinced my mom it was time for me to bite the ears off the bunny. I had eaten chocolate before and I knew that magical taste. With those memories swirling through my mind, I stopped on the trail and took a bite.

“What!” I exclaimed. “This isn’t Chocolate…” I gasped, “It’s Carob!” I’d been had and I knew it! Totally bummed, I half heartedly nibbled on my carob bunny and silently vowed for the day to come when I’d get the real thing: Chocolate!

Every Easter since then I made sure to get my hands on a chocolate bunny. So you can see, when I became a Superfood Chocolatier, I vowed myself from my childhood trauma and made my own Chocolate Super Bunny.

BH: You wrote the book, The Raw Chocolate Diet, and an entire chapter is all about cleansing our organs. Chocolate and cleansing, really? How do these two things fit together?

Sky: The thought of a chocolate cleanse may seem counterintuitive to some. Is chocolate cleansing? Not if you’re eating poor quality toxic chocolate made with artificial, rancid hydrogenated oils, bad sugars and additives.

While excessive chocolate consumption can make digestion difficult, the high magnesium content can relax the muscles and be quite cleansing for the bowels. Really, it depends on what kind of chocolate you are consuming and in what form.

The Raw Chocolate Cleanse incorporates a more balanced approach to eating raw chocolate, while nurturing our organs and overall health. It also could be considered a transition diet. Most importantly, while helping people (including myself) transition to a more whole-live, raw-foods diet, I’ve found we are way more likely to embrace practices like cleansing if it’s tasty and fun!

Health experts today who have moved beyond the limitations of dogmatic diets will agree; practices that you will actually do are far more beneficial to your body than the perfect health regimen that you would never do… at least for now.

We achieve this through one part Alchemy (Protocol and Recipes) and one part Exercising Temperance (Discernment and Moderation).

By transitioning into and out of a cleanse utilizing out “Cacao Elixir” Chocolate Superfood Mix, people experience a “Mood Enhancing” effect. It satiates the appetite with the cacao and delivers nutrient-dense superfoods as well. Instead of chasing the sugar, people feel satisfied sometimes with only one bite!

BH: Why Raw? Is regular chocolate bad?

Sky: What we are really talking about here is not roasted. Chocolate has a higher tolerance for heat than most foods, some believe up to 150 degrees, whereas most enzymes are destroyed over 114 degrees with other foods. Chocolate that is roasted easily can be heated to over 250 degrees. In it’s unroasted state studies have shown that the Antioxidant content can be over 350% greater.

And the same goes for other compounds within chocolate – the most chemically complex food there is! Highest in Magnesium, Iron and Chromium of any food, this is great news for the 80% of Americans who are deficient in these essential nutrients. A proper fermentation can break down the phytic acids in the cacao bean to make it tastier and stone grinding can make for a smoother taste. But without roasting, so many more aspects of the original cacao bean are preserved.

Like PEA, the Love Chemical – the same stuff that is in Blue-Green Algae, but disappears when thawed to room temperature is stable in chocolate. Chocolate also contains Anandmide, the “Bliss” Chemical. Tryptophan is an essential amino acid that acts as a precursor to neurotransmitters like serotonin and melatonin. Part of their role is protecting the body from the biggest baddest monster: Stress.

Raw chocolate may also help with depression, as it can boost levels of serotonin in the brain.

We simply have more of the good stuff left over in Raw Chocolate, without the roasting.

BH: Tell us about your product line and how you developed it.

Sky: Naturally, I wanted to share the solutions I discovered on my own quest for health. I put a lot of my business dreams on hold to nurture a home and family on the Big Island of Hawaii. 17 years later, I’m back in the game.

Sometimes we have to wait for our visions to ripen. Now is my time. I just launched my product line at the 2014 Longevity Conference in LA and sold about 13K worth of product in a few days. People fell in love with the superfood chocolate, calling it the best chocolate in the Raw Food Movement. I didn’t set out to make the best chocolate, but intended for the highest quality with the best ingredients.

When I formulated the line I created the “Shaman’s Blend” with Maca, Mucuna, Spirulina, Chlorella, Ashwaganda and Hemp Protien as a base for the chocolate as well as the Cacao Elixer mix. This blend is similar to what Cacao Shaman’s brewed up thousands of years ago as they traveled between villages, combining local plant medicines and herbs into their traditional ceremonial cacao elixirs.

Chocolate was a drink for the ancient Mayan and Aztec peoples. I wanted to make something authentic and real- people get that and it’s great to hear the feedback that the product line feels authentic.

Mixing the same blend into the rest of the chocolate products created a delicious, herbally-infused, dark chocolate packed with nutrient-dense Superfoods, Superherbs, Aphrodisiacs, Medicinal Mushrooms, Hemp Protein and Mood Enhancers.

Mucuna is 15% LDopa, which the body converts to Dopamine. Cacao Shamans knew what was up and always combined chocolate with this “anti-stimulant.”

The Cacao Elixir, Medicinal Mushroom Mycelium and Tonic Herbal Formulas, are powders that ancient people ate as superfood, and now are intended to be incorporated into smoothies and elixirs.

Gone are the days of pills and capsules. All our products are tasty, easy to use and effective in assisting one in transitioning to a more whole-live, raw-foods diet.

BH: What advice do you have for all the emerging Business Heroines out there?

Sky: Follow your dream, be patient and be willing to let old visions redefine themselves into what needs to be expressed now, in this moment. I found once I was able to free myself of old visions I had, or how I thought I needed to show up with my work, pursuing what I could do that inspired me in this moment – the work came full circle and fueled the passions I originally set out with.

The content changed but the context stayed the same.

For years I felt like I was a Ferrari in the garage, peeling out with one foot slammed on the gas pedal and the other on the brake, spinning out. By focusing on my goals at hand I was able to build a house, develop 6 acres of exotic fruit trees, and lay a foundation for myself and my family to grow from. Some people go about it a different way, but that was my greatest desire at the time… home and family. Many friend have had incredible results over the last decade with their Health and Wellness business they focused on growing. I took a different path yet have no regrets. I did what was important to me at the time and now realize it was perfect for me.

I now use the same skills of manifestation as I did to build my home and family. Visualizing the final outcome in my morning meditation each day continues to yield powerful results. I feel now as if everything is flying into place, because I pulse it each day, that which I would like to see come to pass.

I feel my products moving out into the retail market. I see my online sales growing and sustaining the business until I have achieved my goal of full West Coast distribution and expansion into Canada.

Currently I have a couple solid distributors who are taking me where I need to be. I am being patient and making sure everything is all set before moving solidly into the retail market. Until then I am building my online tribe and helping educate and share through my book, The Raw Chocolate Diet, and other co-creations. I love the response I’m getting through my book and am happy to give it away until it is officially published.

The free eBook has really helped me build my tribe as I send out 1 chapter per week.

Lastly, since I live out here in Hawaii, I have relied heavily upon outsourcing. This has proved an invaluable asset to my business. I have developed solid relationships with people I trust with my work and it has freed me up to remain creative and focus on what I need to be doing. By letting go of some of the logistics and production I have been able to look at the bigger picture and better tweak the outcomes.

***Special Offers from Sky!***

Enjoy my ebook offer as well as the discount on your order from www.medicinal-foods.com. I’m looking forward to putting Superfood Chocolate in your mouth and taking the journey of The Raw Chocolate Diet with you!

Heroines can also enjoy my Female Tonic Special - Receive 20% off your entire order when you purchase the Womb-Yin Nutritive Love Tonic in combination with any Superfood Chocolate products, Hawaiian Gourmet Raw Macadamia Nuts, Medicinal Mushroom Mycelium, Tonic Herbal Blends or any of our other Cutting Edge Health and Wellness products.

This powder contains the very best herbs to nourish the Woman’s Yin essence, beautify, balance and build blood Upright Chi, while increasing female “Elixirs.”

*Use coupon code: Heroine20

June 2014 Issue