Posted by Susheela Narayanan & Sanjiv Prabhakaran on Apr 05, 2019
 
Today we had a surprise visit by Alicia Foster to celebrate Charles' 75th birthday. Alicia said that over the years it has been tough to find a gift for Charles and so this time she gave him a $10,000 check that he can spend on Rotary in any manner he wishes! Everyone was thrilled at her gesture.
 
 
## ""Providing assistance to child & family support with a clean diet with nutritional beneficial foods" by Crystal Hilsley
 
 
Members attended an informative talk by Crystal Hilsley, a Child Food Advisor who specializes in transitioning families to eating a clean diet with nutritionally beneficial foods as a daily reality. Crystal’s unique and highly effective approach involves participation from the whole family, schools and recreational clubs. According to Crystal one in eight children are on the Autism spectrum and one in three children is predicted to be obese. Sugar is the main ingredient in 80% of the food we buy and consume. Crystal described how most of the treats brought by parents to after school games and sports involved empty calories and high levels of food dyes and sugar, such as in donuts, cookies, cupcakes with enormous amounts of artificially dyed cream frosting and even artificially dyed Gatorade.  Apples, oranges, cheese and crackers, healthy nutrition bars and plain water would be much better substitutes, but many parents need to be educated about these alternatives.
 
Crystal also talked about how so many elementary school children cannot sit still in class and focus on the teacher’s instructions because of all the extra sugar and chemicals that they consume in popular foods. They also suffer from dehydration. Sometimes simply drinking a glass of water helps them to calm down.
Crystal created a program called Crystal Clear Kids to emphasize the importance of looking carefully at food labels before buying foods with chemicals and dyes in them that can adversely affect children’s’ moods. Many inner city and low income neighborhoods have become “food deserts” – where only highly processed, convenience foods like donuts and hot dogs are available instead of fresh produce and healthy foods. The program aims to educate parents and children about how chemical dyes, food coloring and unhealthy foods can create cravings and affect children’s chromosomes.
 
Crystal has partnered with Dr. Brian Alman at Kaiser Permanente to create a company called TruSage International that teaches parents and children how to relieve stress naturally through healthy means such as coloring, drawing, yoga, swimming and other physical activities. She is available to give talks and workshops to schools, clubs and other community groups to spread the message of making wise choices in foods, which will help heal bodies and minds in a natural way.
 
 
In the end DMSB Club interim President Ken Barrett presented the speaker with the Joshua certificate that represents our club DMSB donating school supplies to schools in Malawi in the name of the speaker.
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