HOLISTIC healing is increasingly becoming a feature for people looking to live a more balanced life, and Desi Kuumba, the founder of Des I Natral, offers products and services to foster a changed lifestyle.

Kuumba, who hails from Portmore, St Catherine, himself embarked on a lifestyle change in 2008, shunning certain foods as he journeyed towards becoming healthier; he believes others can.

“It’s a whole lifestyle change,” he told the Jamaica Observer from his home, where he now operates his business, though he was quick to point out that he will take his products and services to anyone who demands it. His Rastafarian beliefs strongly influence the products and services he offers. The journey he said, started from “an individual level inspiration which means taking care of life”.

“Inspiration comes through nature by dealing with the earth, because the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, so we deal with everything from earth,” Kuumba explains as the precursor to delving into his home-based business in which he produces a range of products.

“I start from food, because your food is your first medicine,” he expoused. Kuumba preaches the philosophy, “let your food be your medicine and your medicine your food” as a means of inspiring healthy eating as the first stage of preventing certain illnesses rather than eating oneself sick and then spending thousands of dollars to get better after. “When you eat, you must feel energetic after, not drowsy.”

“Your body is a temple, and you must take care of the temple and the temple will take care of you,” he continued.

Kuumba said his first journey to inspire others to do so was cooking ital food — a cooking style followed mostly by Rastafarians based on the general principle that food should be natural, or pure, and directly from the earth.

And though he does not produce skincare products, he implores people to consider using natural chemicals to take care of the skin rather than treating it with synthetic laced chemicals that are sold on store shelves.

But turning to his own products, he was enthused.

“I have more than 20 products, but sometimes it takes a while to produce them because of finances.

“I have the detox and all types of roots wine and herbal wines,” he told Sunday Finance as he proceeded to outline an extensive list including but not limited to moringa wine, cannabis wine, guinea hen wine, tamarind wine, stinking toe wine and cherry wine, all under the Des I Natral brand. He also produces a range of natural seasonings under the brand.

He said marketing of the products is done “first hand”, meaning by word of mouth, adding that whenever he produces, the products are sold quickly. “My products are in no store, but I would like to have them in stores.” Kuumba says he has been to the Bureau of Standards Jamaica to get his products “tested” but the cost of doing so makes it prohibitive for him at this stage.

“Doctors, police, artistes, all sort of people come to purchase the products,” he boasts.

Kuumba says he develops the products mostly from reading and researching, including on the Internet. He said people who buy his products are also told to change their diets to being more plant-based as part of living a more natural life.

The products he produces and sells and the lifestyle he advocates is one that is showing strong growth globally.

The complementary and alternative medicine market was valued at approximately US$92.65 billion in 2021, and it is expected to witness revenue of US$411.4 billion by 2030.

Specifically, the total global plant-based food market is estimated to reach US$78.95 billion by the year 2028, up from US$40.21 billon in 2021.

Moving forward, he said getting his business on a firmer foundation requires financing which he does not have, and though he desires to see the items being more available to the public, he said he will not compromise his beliefs just to make a dollar.

“I more need a wellness centre. I am really not interested in the products being in any and any store because anyone who is selling the product must be a consumer of the products. That’s how real the products are. I want a space where I can pass on the knowledge to ones and ones,” he said, ending in his Rastafarian speech, referencing to people as individuals.

“I want a space where I can have a factory to produce, preferably something close to nature with a river, where I can provide full holistic healing, not just in the food or roots or herbal wines, but to provide a full service in nature where people can come. No phones. Just people listening to the running river and the birds and the wind, do yoga, get therapy and eat natural food while also being taught how to live more naturally.

“They have been teaching us wrong. They tell you from you were young to get up in the mornings and drink tea. You should really be drinking room temperature water with lime juice to flush your system,” he added as he outlined that people should not be eating heavy food after sunset.

If you want to contact Desi Natral 1-876-285-5091 and he can be emailed at desikuumba81@gmail.com

He can also be viewed on social media @des_i_natral or desikuumba to see some of his works and the testimonies from using the products.