Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Matt Monarch and Raw Success?

This blog is not going to win me any friends in the raw food movement. But I got to tell the truth as I see it. This is all about Matt Monarch and his teachings about raw food. He and wife Angela Stokes were in the area this weekend and this is what I learned at his talk and while he stayed at my house.

I prepared for Matt's visit to Mystic and Westerly by reading his book Raw Success, which is available on line for free. Matt basically repeated essential concepts of the book in his talk. So, if you missed Matt or haven't read the book this is the message:

1. It's not what we eat that is important to our health, it's what we don't eat (refined foods being the worst).

2. You cannot be healthy unless you get colonics regularly, at least once a month.

3. The healthier we get, the more sensitive we get. Bad foods like a hamburger will put you into the hospital right away if you are a raw vegan for a long time like Matt.

4. Eating a healthy diet will make you spiritual like him. Your third eye will start working again.

5. The goal is to eat less and less food, eventually becoming a breathtarian, someone who lives only on air.

6. All foods are detrimental to your health, even good foods. That is why you want to eventually get to not eating foods at all.

7. We are born with cells that have the accumulation of all the bad food choices of our ancestors.

Those are all the main points of Matt's teachings, both live and in the book. So here is where I get into trouble. What a bunch of crap. The kid ought to go to school and read some serious stuff, not this new age garbage based on stories.

Here are my thoughts on Matt's teachings:

1. It's what we do eat that's important to health. We make bad food choices because we are not nourished. Fill yourself up first of good foods and you will slowly and gradually find that you will want less of the bad stuff. Think positive, not negative.

2. All the research that I have done points to colonics being a waste (pun intended) of time.

3. The healthier we get, the stronger our immune systems get. When we do make bad food choices once in a while our stronger bodies can handle it and other attacks to our systems.

4. I don't think eating better makes you more spiritual, but being more spiritual does make you eat better. (More on Matt's spirituality later.)

5. I agree that we all should for the most part eat less food, but really, if I had to give up food entirely...kill me.

6. Good foods are bad for me? How are we supposed to build strong bodies? The idea that good foods make us live shorter lives than if we ate nothing is so...lacking in substance.

7. The idea that we are born with "the sins of our fathers" nutritionally speaking is another new age idiotic idea. Not only do we not come into this world with bad cells, we can, by eating good foods make our cells more vibrant and alive.

Anyway, I'm writing this because Matt spends a lot of time promoting himself and spreads these ideas everywhere. I just want some people to be forewarned about what he is saying because besides wasting our time and money I think some of this can be dangerous.

I said that I wanted to say a little more about the spirituality thing. I was not impressed with it. My daughter Gina asked me if Matt and Angela could stay at my house because I have the room. I said fine. They were supposed to arrive by 10 pm Saturday night. I waited till midnight, no show, no call. Turns out their car was towed. I would have thought at some point when they knew they were not coming they could have called. While at my house they wanted no interaction and pretty much stayed in the office I set up for them to do work. They asked to use my washing machine to do their laundry, which I said fine, but when the left, they left all their dirty sheets and towels on the floor for me to pick up and wash. Matt and Angela, I'm sorry, but I'm not impressed with your sense of spirituality.

By the way, I'm sorry to say, I missed Angela's talk, which I heard was very good, but the break between talks was so long I went home. Of course, the time between breaks was used to sell the huge amount of product they brought with them. (Another pet peeve of mine...selling products that you are encouraging people to use in your talks. That's not very ethical in my mind.)

Sometimes I just wish raw food people would shut up and just help us all eat more fresh fruits and vegetables. Make it more interesting and enjoyable. Keep it simple. Gotta go now, time to make my banana cacao green smoothie.