Guest: Danielle Duboise — co-founder of Sakara Life Host: Elizabeth Stein, founder & CEO of Purely Elizabeth Listen: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | iHeart Radio

Danielle Duboise co-founded Sakara Life in 2011 out of a small New York City apartment, delivering meals by hand to a handful of people who needed what she and her co-founder Whitney had needed themselves — a way to eat that was actually about nourishment rather than restriction. Fifteen years later, Sakara delivers to every zip code in the US and has expanded into supplements, powders, and functional foods.

In this conversation, Danielle and Elizabeth talk about the difference between nutrition and nourishment, why gut health became the bridge that helped people understand how food actually affects how they feel, and what it's like to build a mission-driven company over more than a decade without building it to sell. They also talk about plant diversity, fiber, the gut microbiome, why joy is a nutrient, and why wellness becoming a checklist is one of the things Danielle finds most worth resisting.

Key Takeaways

• -Nutrition and nourishment are not the same thing — nutrition is the science of pulling food apart to understand its components; nourishment is asking how you feel and using food as a toolkit to get back to feeling good
• -Joy is a nutrient — how you feel about the food you're eating is as important as the food itself; eating with resentment or shame affects how you assimilate nutrients
• -The number one indicator of a healthy gut is microbial diversity — not the presence of one "good" bacteria in high amounts, but a diverse ecosystem where many different microbes are in balance
• -Eat at least 30 different plant foods per week — different plants have different types of fiber, and different types of fiber feed different bacteria in the gut; diversity is the mechanism
• -Obsessing over a single nutrient misses the bigger picture — protein, then fat, then carbs, now protein again — every few years the conversation narrows to one thing; the quality of your overall diet over time matters more than optimizing any single element
• -Wellness was never supposed to be a checklist — it's a toolkit to help you navigate your own health; if you feel exactly the same doing something as not doing it, you might not need it

Products Mentioned

• Purely Elizabeth Protein Oatmeal — Maple Cinnamon Roll, Apple Harvest Crumble, and Chocolate Chip Banana Bread; available at purelyelizabeth.com and coming soon to Albertsons, Publix, Whole Foods, and Target

→ Shop Purely Elizabeth Protein Oatmeal

Episode Highlights

On how Sakara started: Danielle was studying pre-med and interning at a cardiac clinic in Harlem when she realized that most of the patients she was seeing were arriving with late-stage lifestyle disease — by the time they reached a cardiologist, the options were surgery and lifelong pharmaceuticals. She started asking who was getting to those patients earlier. Around the same time, she hit her own health rock bottom. She switched from pre-med to studying nutrition and functional medicine, developed a meal program for herself and her co-founder Whitney (who was dealing with severe cystic acne that hadn't responded to any conventional treatment), and found that within a few weeks, both of their conditions improved dramatically. They started delivering meals out of their apartment in 2011. Within six months, Goop and DailyCandy had written about them, and the trajectory changed.

On the difference between nutrition and nourishment: Nutrition is a science of isolation — you study a nutrient in a fixed system to understand what it does. But humans are never a fixed system, and the way we absorb nutrients from whole foods is different from how we absorb them from supplements. Beta carotene from a carrot behaves differently than beta carotene in a pill; why is still being studied, but cofactors, enzymes, and other molecules in whole foods play a role. Nourishment starts with a different question: how do I feel? What are my check-engine lights, and do I understand them?

On gut health as the bridge between food and how you feel: Danielle traces the wellness boom largely to gut health becoming a cultural conversation. Before that, people understood food mostly through the lens of calories and macronutrients. Gut health gave people a more intuitive way to understand why food affects whether they have a headache, or acne, or low energy — because the food literally goes to your gut. She was on panels in 2012 asking audiences if they knew what the microbiome was and raising her hand alongside maybe a handful of others.

On plant diversity and the gut microbiome: The number one indicator of a healthy gut is microbial diversity — not one "good" bacteria at high levels, but many different bacteria in balance. The way to support that diversity is through the diversity of plant foods you eat, because different plants contain different types of fiber, and different fibers feed different bacteria. Sakara programs get clients eating around 200 different plant foods in a week. Danielle recommends a minimum of 30 per week and uses color as a practical guide — eating the rainbow daily covers a lot of ground. Her other trick: at the grocery store, grab one to three ingredients that are new or that you haven't used in a while — okra, purple cabbage, whatever isn't already on your list.

On the fiber conversation: Danielle is vocal about the risk of the high-protein trend causing people to forget about fiber. Most high-protein foods are very low in fiber. Fiber is not one thing — there are many different types, and each feeds different microbes. She's hoping the cultural conversation shifts from protein to fiber, and she sees it happening. Elizabeth agrees: 2026 is shaping up to be the year of fiber.

On building Sakara without building it to sell: Danielle and Elizabeth came up in an era when the goal was to raise money, grow fast, and sell. Sakara didn't follow that path and didn't get those headlines. Now many of the companies that did are paying for it. Danielle is thinking more about what a multigenerational company might look like — her daughter is already telling people that someday she'll run Sakara. Nobody talks about building something to last across generations in their startup era; the assumption is always build and exit. Danielle doesn't know yet whether the path is scale or something more precious and preserved, but she's sitting in that question intentionally.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Danielle Duboise? Danielle Duboise is the co-founder of Sakara Life, a plant-based food and wellness company she started in 2011 with her co-founder and best friend Whitney Tingle. Danielle has a background in pre-medicine and holds a master's degree in functional medicine and human nutrition. She studied at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN). Sakara started as a meal delivery program out of a New York City apartment and now delivers to every zip code in the US, with a product line that includes meals, supplements, powders, and functional foods.

What is Sakara Life? Sakara Life is a plant-forward food and wellness company focused on nourishment, gut health, and plant diversity. It delivers nutritionally designed, ready-to-eat meals to customers across the US, along with a line of supplements and functional foods. Sakara's philosophy is not vegan but is plant-forward — the emphasis is on crowding in fruits, vegetables, fiber, and variety rather than restricting any specific food group. The founding principle is that food is medicine, and that how you feel after eating is as important as the nutritional content of what you ate.

What is the difference between nutrition and nourishment? Nutrition is the scientific study of food's components — macronutrients, micronutrients, fiber — and what those components do for the body. It requires isolating variables, which is useful for science but doesn't reflect how the body actually works as a living, changing system. Nourishment is broader and more personal: it asks how you actually feel, what your body is telling you, and how food can be a toolkit for getting back to feeling good. Danielle Duboise and Sakara emphasize nourishment as the frame — starting with "how do I feel?" rather than "how many grams of X did I get?"

What does Sakara mean by "joy is a nutrient"? The phrase reflects Danielle's belief that the emotional experience of eating — including pleasure, freedom from guilt, and the enjoyment of food — affects how the body assimilates nutrients and processes food. A meal eaten with shame or anxiety is different in its effect than the same meal eaten with enjoyment. Sakara's motto is "eat clean, play dirty" — most of the time focused on plant-rich, nourishing foods, and also genuinely enjoying a bowl of fries or a glass of wine with friends without treating it as a lapse.

What is microbial diversity and why does it matter for gut health? Microbial diversity refers to having a wide variety of different bacterial species in the gut microbiome. Research shows that a diverse microbiome — with many types of bacteria present in relative balance — is the strongest indicator of a functional, healthy gut. Problems arise when one type of bacteria dominates the others, even if it's a "good" bacteria. Diversity is supported primarily through dietary variety, specifically the diversity of plant foods eaten over time, because different plant fibers feed different bacterial species.

What is Sakara's approach to fiber? Sakara treats fiber as one of the most important components of a nourishing diet — not a single nutrient, but a broad category of compounds that differ between plant foods and feed different gut bacteria. Their programs are designed to deliver a very high diversity of plant foods, which naturally provides a wide range of fiber types. Danielle is vocal about the risk of high-protein diets crowding out fiber, and is hoping the next major nutrition conversation centers on fiber as much as the last few years centered on protein.

Topics: Plant-Based Eating · Gut Health · Microbiome · Nourishment vs. Nutrition · Food as Medicine · Female Entrepreneurship · Fiber · Joy & Food · Mission-Driven Business