“I will devote the rest of my life to using the latest, most sophisticated first-world science to help alleviate the suffering of African children”

Dr. Floyd "Ski" Chilton

I dedicated The Gene Smart Diet book to the orphans of Africa, and have committed ten percent of all royalties that I receive from sales of the book to enrich the lives of orphans and other vulnerable children in Africa.

From Dr. Chilton's Book, The Gene Smart Diet

Book Dedication

To the orphans of Africa-- in particular, the Masoyi orphans of South Africa and the Darfur orphans of Sudan -- for their extraordinary hope, courage, and love. They have deeply inspired me and, in the process, fundamentally and eternally transformed me.

About Gene Smart Compassion

During the time I was writing this book, my wife, Briana, and I had the opportunity to go to Africa to work with orphans affected by HIV/AIDS. We washed their feet, gave them shoes, and prayed with them. My group directly interacted with almost 2,000 orphans during our stay there.

On the third day of our trip, we traveled to a banana plantation. It was the saddest place I’d ever been, and I immediately knew my life would be changed by it. When we arrived, hundreds of children were playing in a big field surrounded by a fence. The older ones stuck their heads through the fence, like trapped livestock, to get a better look at us. About 50 infants, all under 2 years old, were sitting in the mud crying. When we asked one of the caretakers the name of one infant, she couldn’t answer. The baby was one of hundreds of children without names, looked after by a few “grannies.”

I was immediately drawn to one of the infants. His eyes were deep yellow from liver failure as a result of AIDS and hepatitis, his face badly distorted from a birth defect and the ravages of malnutrition. He was crying, too, but only half-heartedly. As I looked at him, I thought, “I can’t pick him up; it’s too much of a risk for me and my family.” Then, with great clarity, I heard God’s voice asking me: “Who are you? Whose are you?” I immediately picked up the child, washed his face, and sang the lullaby that my mom had sung to me when I was a baby. The little boy stopped crying and looked me right in the eyes. And in his eyes, I saw what I believed to be the face of God for the first time in my life.

More recently, I went to an area called Jach, located on the border between southern Sudan and Darfur. When it was discovered that I was a researcher in the area of nutrition, I was brought an orphan child who was four years old, and so severely malnourished that she weighed twelve pounds. Her name was Abuk. She had been orphaned as a result of the surrounding genocide, and she was obviously just days from death. Over the next 10 days, I was blessed to be able to love that child, and to help bring her back to life by providing basic nutrition.

There are more than 140 million orphans worldwide, and 16 million in southern Africa who have lost their parents to AIDS. That number is expected to exceed 25 million in the next 2 years; that’s two and a half times the population of North Carolina, my home state. Millions more have been orphaned as a result of genocide. When we talk about malnutrition, we are talking about millions of beautiful, loving children like Abuk. And I know that we must do something now to help children like her.

These children are malnourished by the amount and the type of food they eat. When it doesn’t kill, malnutrition:

Is responsible for hundreds of thousands of serious birth defects each year
Impairs mental development and stunts physical growth
Weakens immune function and renders children susceptible to infectious diseases, including malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV.
Diminishes their capacity to work when they grow up, which undermines an entire nation’s prospects for economic stability

I have decided to devote the rest of my life to using the latest, most sophisticated first-world technology to help alleviate the suffering of African children. I have founded a nonprofit organization called Gene Smart Compassion, which is setting up feeding stations and developing a therapeutic food designed to provide malnourished orphans with the micro- and macro-nutrients that they will need to survive and prosper given their current food supply.

The Gene Smart Diet is devoted to using food to alter the expression of inflammatory genes, which are constantly switched on thanks to the overabundant environment in which we find ourselves. Gene Smart Compassion will use the same approach to address the other end of the malnutrition spectrum: in this case, to increase the expression of inflammatory genes in children who desperately need to build their immune systems.

We must do this now. Millions of children are missing their “window of opportunity” for normal growth and development; thousands are dying every day. As the late Nobel laureate Gabriela Mistral wrote:

We are guilty of many errors and many faults, but our worst crime is abandoning the children, neglecting the foundation of life. Many of the things we need can wait. The child cannot. Right now is the time his bones are being formed, his blood is being made and his senses are being developed. To him we cannot answer ‘Tomorrow.’ His name is ‘Today.’

Ten percent of all royalties that I receive from this book will be tithed to efforts to enrich the lives of orphans and other vulnerable children in Africa. If you are interested in helping with this effort, please visit www.genesmartcompassion.org.