Today we’d like to introduce you to La’Darius C. Madison.
La’Darius, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Well, I’ve always known I wanted to be in healthcare but I did not necessarily know in what capacity. I initially explored and considered all of the traditional, more popular routes like medical school, pharmacy school, nursing school, dental school, and even some others. While in undergrad at Auburn University, I realized through shadowing and some of my course work, that I really disliked treating sick people and that I had a real preference for more preventative measures. During the summer of my sophomore year, I started exploring other options that would allow me, in my opinion, to have a much greater impact on people’s health, wellness, and quality of life and I stumbled upon Nutrition & Dietetics.
To my surprise, it was very fascinating to me to learn the role that adequate nutrition or the lack thereof, plays in people’s development of illnesses and their healing process. So I started a journey to become a Registered Dietitian (RD/RDN). Once I completed my undergraduate degree, I was unsure at that time how I might truly bring nutrition to the forefront of healthcare, so I opted to continue my education to get more training. I completed my graduate studies in public health at Tennessee State University with an emphasis on behavioral health and health education. It was the perfect combination because that degree enabled me to learn the how’s and why’s of people’s behaviors related to their health. Being able to use theories to explain how people made decisions about their food choices and ultimately their health outcomes, would make me a better Dietitian I believed. After that, I relocated back to Georgia to complete a year-long Dietetic Internship, that would allow me the opportunity to be eligible to take our national credentialing exam. The Dietetic Internship for nutrition graduates is essentially what clinicals are for nursing students, residencies are for medical students, and so on…
Once I started practicing as a master’s trained, Registered and Licensed Dietitian, I quickly realized that there was an even greater need for more conversations about nutrition and health, particularly, for the populations that needed it the most; the underserved and underrepresented. I decided to enroll in school again, to pursue the Doctor of Public Health degree in Community Health Behavior & Education at Georgia Southern University. During that time, I launched “DigestWithDarius” as a small, social media platform to provide culturally appropriate nutrition counseling and recommendations to individuals and groups who might have otherwise never had the opportunity to connect with a nutrition expert and professional.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Absolutely not. For one, I am an African American man and a native of one of the most rural parts of Alabama making a career in a profession that is dominated and led by Caucasian women. Talk about challenging…the challenges started from the very beginning, as a student. My experiences with food and nutrition, being from Alabama, were obviously very different from most of my classmates. It was very difficult and still is very difficult challenging people within the profession to dismantle their unconscious biases towards minorities and their choices, not just about food but about life in general.
The same challenges are present in the workplace because no one knows what Dietitians actually do. Everybody from the doctors to the custodial workers and everyone in between thinks we simply tell people what to eat. And that is not at all the gist of it. Thankfully, with DigestWithDarius, I have the opportunity to truly have those conversations about the role nutrition plays in health and wellness.
Marketing has been a challenge as well because most people come to me to get “meal plans” rather than nutrition counseling and education, because they want to quickly lose weight or tone up; as opposed to learning how to have a better relationship with their foods and how that relationship will ultimately shape the future of their health and their bodies.
Please tell us more about your work. What do you do? What do you specialize in? What sets you apart from competition?
DigesWithDarius is a small, social media platform that seeks to explore the role of nutrition in health outcomes. I specialize in all things nutrition, for the marginalized communities. More specifically, nutrition and chronic diseases and public health nutrition. I am known mostly for tackling the difficult conversations about nutrition, particularly, how in most cases, the conversation is never truly about the food. But instead, it’s more about all of the factors, what we in public health call the social-ecological model, that impact a person’s or people’s decisions about their food and ultimately their health.
I think the thing that sets me apart from others is simply being a man in the profession; a black man at that, and with advanced education. A lot of people still only think women are Dietitians and so I do get a lot of double looks sometimes when people hear me say that “I am the Dietitian”.
I am very proud of the responses I’ve gotten. Nothing makes me smile harder than having a random person come up to me and say “…I’m trying to DigestWithDarius today! I follow you on Instagram…” That makes my day!
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Prayer, not so much luck, in my opinion, has played a major role in my life and business. Having the ability to build lasting relationships with people from all walks of life and professions has been the sole driver behind the success. I believe it’s a southern thing, where people can recognize and appreciate genuiness and kind spirits and be supportive. I have so many friends that I have never met in person but because someone has talked about me to them, they have reached out to help and/or collaborate in some way. And so, I attribute to prayer mostly because I am always praying that people see the good in me, see the good in themselves and see my desire to truly be a champion of greatness.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: digestwithdarius
Image Credit:
Professional photos were taken by Mr. Dalvin Adams (@mr_adams)
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