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Matt Monarch Interview
RawGuru
04-01-2006
| 1. What are some Raw Food Staples in your current diet? Are you 100% Raw? How did you start?
I have been on a 100% Raw Food Diet for 5 years now. I only eat Raw vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds. I jumped into a 100% Raw Food Diet overnight after reading Become Younger, by Dr. Norman Walker. He talks about the scientific reasons why processed starches, refined sugar, dairy, and animal protein have harmful effect on the human body. He lived to be well over 100 years old. At that time I didn ??t even know that eating a Raw Food Diet was an option. But the inspiration and practicality of Dr. Walker ??s book left me thinking to myself, how can I not do this, how can anyone not do this? I became a 100% Raw Food Eater the very next day.
2. What is your book "Raw Spirit" about? How is it different than other raw food books?
After that first book by Norman Walker I devoured every written word I could find about being Raw. I was eager to experience all the miracles these books talked about. And as promised, AMAZING, INCREDIBLE, things started happening, the most earth shaking being those changes I had not read about and was not expecting. The Raw Diet propelled me into a spiritual lifestyle, which for me was fairly uncharted waters. I couldn ??t believe the astonishing range of experiences I was having; a lot of them are explained in my book. There were also challenges that came up when I became Raw. They were hard for me and I can see them being hard for others. I share those ??not to pleasant ?? jabs, as well. I also make clear the basic scientific reasons why all these positive and negative experiences happen. Additionally, there is an interview with Dr. Fred Bisci, PhD in the book. Dr. Bisci has been on a Raw Food Diet for over 40 years. He is a renowned nutritionist who has seen well over 25,000 people during his career. He has helped heal numerous conditions and degenerative diseases using an improved diet protocol. When I have a burning question, Fred is definitely my most frequently used resource.
I believe that the Raw Diet, if done correctly, is the ultimate diet for the human body. However, I understand that it is not an easy task and may simply not be practical for everyone ??s lifestyle, climate, etc. My goal is not to convert everyone to Raw Foodists. In Raw Spirit, I explain how someone can experience high levels of health without adhering to a 100% Raw Food Diet. I also include Dr. Bisci's Intermediate Healing Diet, a protocol similar to what he gives clients who want to heal from disease. This intermediate diet, containing some cooked foods, can be adopted as your daily guideline for health and healing; or it can be used to transition safely and easily to your new Raw Lifestyle.
3. What ??s it like working with Paul Nison and Dr. Fred Bisci?
Fred is like my father and Paul is like my brother. I am very lucky to be associated with these two extraordinary men. For the last four years, I have consulted with them both on an almost daily basis. Paul has been doing the Raw lifestyle for almost a decade now. He shows me the ropes and guides me in the right direction. Paul ??s outreach has motivated me to take my talents to the limit. He encouraged the writing of this book from the get go. One of my future plans is to travel from state to state speaking about the Raw Diet. Paul has been doing that for many years and is excited for me to do the same. His kindness and willingness to help catapulted me into this reality.
As for Dr. Bisci, I have come to him with hundreds of questions from people around the globe. There has never been a question he could not answer, in detail. Regardless of whether people ??s concerns are about arthritis and Crohn ??s disease or indigestion and migraines, he always has an answer, a solution. In every case he knows what foods should be added or eliminated and what supplements are needed to speed recovery. I have seen it happen time and time again that Fred ??s nutritional advice has empowered people to heal from degenerative diseases of all kinds. I have never met anyone that is as knowledgeable about the human body and the Raw Food Diet. His guidance allows people to take their health to the highest possible limit.
4. What are some quick tips or hints for someone trying to start a Raw Diet?
It is what you leave out of your diet completely that produces extreme health. There are so many diets out there today ?? The Maker ??s Diet, Macrobiotics, Zone Diet, etc. ?? have helped people lose weight and improve their health conditions. There is one common denominator for all their successes. That common denominator is they all leave something COMPLETELY out of the diet such as refined sugar, starch, and so on. Raw Foods is the best way to go because you leave out all the bad and only keep the good. It is not solely Raw Food that heals people; it is what they are not doing that heals them.
I have a friend with some health issues that tries to eat a lot of raw veggies when I ??m around. I ??m fully aware that he still eats ??other foods ?? like orange chicken from Panda Express. I don ??t care if he eats raw foods until he is blue in the face. If you don ??t eliminate the cause of your trouble, then you are not going to get better. Fred jokingly uses this extreme example. If you were to subsist on a diet of dead rats and a little lettuce, nothing else, you are going to get better. Why is a fast so healing? Because you are leaving EVERYTHING OUT. It is critically important to understand that it is what you leave out of your diet completely, without cheating, is what heals you.
I like to break the foods down into the following categories:
Processed Starches (Bread, pastries, cereal, pasta)
Refined Sugar (cake, soda, candy, ice cream)
Dairy
Animal Protein
Raw Foods
Stimulants (Coffee, Cigarettes, drugs, alcohol)
Which of these food groups should be eliminated completely from your diet first? If you were talking from a moral standpoint, animal protein would be the first choice, because all life is sacred. From a scientific standpoint, however, animal protein would be the last group I would eliminate.
Take for example the diet of a vegetarian. A vegetarian who eats freely of ??meatless junk food, ?? processed sugars and starches, yet eliminates meat, is nowhere near the caliber of a Raw Food Eater or a mindful moderate meat eater. The order of total elimination from the diet is first: stimulants, second: processed starches, and third: refined sugar. I believe the first things to go would be the stimulants, processed starches, and refined sugar. That is a huge secret. If you can leave out these three groups you are on your way. You can get a book by Dr. Norman Walker, called Become Younger, which discusses in detail the harmful effects that these foods cause to the body. Since reading that book, I haven ??t ingested anything but live raw foods. He also discusses the harmful effects of cow ??s milk, pasteurized dairy products, red meat, etc.
5. What are some quick tips or hints for Raw newbies?
Let ??s say that you are one of the rare cases that actually eliminates everything except for Raw Foods from your diet. Inevitably, the famous ??detox ?? starts to happen. Your body on a cellular level begins to dump endogenous material and toxins into your blood stream. What your diet was like in the past, your age, etc., will determine the outcome of how harsh the detox will be. Not only do we have to deal with all the age-old waste matter being released from our system, we also have to deal with our day-to-day burden of environmental toxicity, cell metabolism, digestion, and maybe even what our parents did. Those that don ??t realize what is happening usually blame the diet and either quit or cheat with some cooked foods. Feeling the effects of detox can sometimes last years. I have found the best way to keep up with all this waste matter is colonics. I jumped from the Standard American Diet into a Raw Diet overnight. If it wasn ??t for colonics, I don ??t think I would have been able to stay Raw. Colonics are especially beneficial for someone committed to improving his or her diet indefinitely. Imagine that you are on the Standard American Diet and you decide to improve your diet for a week. No more greasy foods and junk foods. After that junk free week, you eat a couple slices of pizza. Because you have been eating so well, you ??ll probably feel ill and get a stomachache. A colonic would most likely clear that right up. If you were to eat the pizza again after doing that colonic, you may even get more sick then before, because you are even cleaner now then the first time you ate the pizza. This yo-yoing between really good and poor diet can prove to be harmful. Raw Spirit gives more explanation about why it is better to move gradually and consistently, or not at all.
Colonics are powerful healing aids and can catapult your body to the next level. Your body will be free of waste buildup, allowing it to work on deeper levels of healing like your internal chemistry. If you returned to the Standard American Diet, you would eventually end up right back where you started.
Waste removal is crucial for ultimate health. Most people look at me and estimate my age as early 20s, when in fact I am almost 31 years old. I owe my youth and glow to colonics, leaving things out of my diet completely, and drinking green vegetable juices. Drinking vegetable juice is very important. Not only does it provide us the best nourishment by giving us vitamins and minerals in the most soluble, easily absorbed form, it also acts as a powerful alkalizer. It helps alkalize the acidic endogenous material being released into our blood. If you combine a Raw Food Diet, colonics, and vegetable juices, your body will immediately respond with astonishing results.
6. Do you have any major influences?
I would have to say Dr. Fred Bisci and Dr. Norman Walker are the top two. I have some other favorite authors such as Arnold Ehret and Hilton Hotema. Dr. Norman Walker lived to be well over 100 years old. He was obviously doing something right.
7. How do you come up with a recipe?
After being Raw for five years now, my diet is pretty simple and I don ??t use many recipes. I do enjoy experimenting for friends, though, and have fun creating dishes similar to some of my old favorite cooked foods. Intuition and fearlessness have produced my best recipes. My mom used to make me the best banana nut bread and I would spread cream cheese on each slice. That was amazing. Although, my banana nut bread creation didn ??t esthetically resemble her version, it sure tasted like it. And the cream cheese! Yumm! I squeezed a lemon or two in the blender along with a couple of large avacodos, 9 dates, and a small handful of dulse and blended it up. Ta-dah! It was cream cheese. For the banana nut bread, I took a bunch of pulp from juicing carrots, romaine lettuce, spinach and celery. I put it in a food processor with the S blade along with 3-4 frozen bananas, some dates, and 10 tablespoons of ground flax. I may have added carrot juice to make it mix easier. After that was blended, I pulsed in soaked raisons and chopped walnuts. Then you just add the cream cheese and heaven prevails.
Paul Nison comes up with the craziest recipes, too. He made raw eggnog. Soak 1 cup of almonds overnight. The next day, blend the almonds with two cups of water and 2 tablespoons of Fred Bisci ??s Probiotics and blend. Let sit overnight. Strain the mixture with a nut milk bag (we carry nut milk bags and Fred ??s Probiotics at www.TheRawWorld.com. Blend the strained liquid with 1-2 bananas and a little agave nectar to taste. The substance in the strainer is an amazing seed cheese for you to enjoy. To avoid having to use more probiotics for future batches, take four tablespoons from the mixture before you strain it, put it in a separate container and use it in place of the probiotics the next time.
8. Do you have any dental problems on the Raw Diet?
I do not have any dental problems. If the Raw Diet is done correctly, I would be surprised if you got a single cavity. A lot of people run into problems because they think the Raw Food Diet is a cure-all. You have to continue proper dental hygiene even, even on an ideal diet. Make sure to brush and floss your teeth on a daily basis, making sure to brush all the way to the gum line. Many people have swollen gums. It ??s likely they don ??t floss everyday and as a result have developed gingivitis. When a person with gingivitis flosses, their gums bleed. Flossing everyday for two weeks would be enough to stop the bleeding and the swelling.
Frequently, Raw Foodists eat too much fruit. If you overeat fruit you may become mineral deficient and calcium could leach out of your teeth. When you are doing a Raw Diet right ?? eating a good variety of foods, leafy greens, and drinking green juices ?? you will have no problem assimilating plenty of calcium and magnesium. If you are doing the Raw Diet correctly, your chances of running into teeth problems are much less then a cooked food eater. Citrus is another thing you have to watch out for, especially if the fruit is non-organic and prematurely picked. Drinking or eating too many lemons, oranges, or grapefruits can erode your tooth enamel. Make sure to rinse and brush your teeth after having citrus. If the citrus fruit is allowed to fully mature on the tree and is organic, the effects won ??t be as bad on your teeth. However, I think rinsing your mouth out and/or brushing your teeth post-citrus is still a good idea.
9. Where do you see the Raw Food movement heading?
I see the Raw Food movement growing exponentially. Every time I turn my head I see a new Raw Food Restaurant open. I am astonished when random people I meet start talking about their plans to transition toward a Raw Food Diet. Also, there is a great demand for Raw Food books, as I ??m learning. Education about the Raw movement is definitely being sought out.
10. Can you please tell us about some of your current projects you ??re working on and/or developing?
Currently, I have plans to start traveling the United States, getting the word out about how to heal thru diet, especially the Raw Food Diet. All three of us, Fred, Paul, and myself, may travel together at some point and do a trio-speaking event. We ??re also chatting about the possibility of doing healing retreats or establishing a center where people can come, heal, and be educated on a healthier lifestyle.
Click here to order Matt's book, Raw Spirit: What The Raw Food Advocates Don't Preach.
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