Vegan Influencer Dies After Fruit-Only Diet, Friends Say

A vegan influencer who promoted a raw fruit and vegetable diet on social media died last month in Malaysia, reportedly from starvation and exhaustion, according to her friends and family.

Zhanna Samsonova, 39, who had more than 12,000 followers on Instagram and millions of views on TikTok, followed a heavily restrictive diet that consisted of only fruits, sunflower seed sprouts, fruit smoothies and juices for four years. She also claimed that she had not drunk water for six years, relying instead on the juices from fruit.

She died on July 21 during a tour of south-eastern Asia, where she had been living off exotic fruits such as durian and jackfruit. Her official cause of death has not been declared, but her mother, Vera Samsonova, told a Russian newspaper that her daughter succumbed to a “cholera-like infection”. She also said that she believed her daughter’s death “could have occurred against the background of the exhaustion of the body by a vegan diet”.

Ms. Samsonova, who was from Kaza, Russia, had posted videos and photos of herself eating fruit and praising the benefits of her diet on various platforms. She said that her diet transformed her body and mind, and made her look younger than her peers.

“I see my body and mind transform every day. I love my new me, and never move on to the habits that I used to use,” she wrote on Instagram in June.

She also expressed a disdain for conventional food, saying: “I feel very sad when I see most of my peers.. Because of junk food, they look much older than their age.”

However, her friends and followers noticed that she looked emaciated, swollen and oozing lymph in her recent posts. They said they urged her to seek medical help, but she refused.

“Zhanna’s idle stagnation was causing her to melt before our eyes, but she believed everything was fine. Only her eyes, merry eyes, and gorgeous hair compensated for the dreadful sight of a body tortured by idiocy. Forgive me if it sounds harsh,” a friend said.

Some of her followers speculated that she could have been killed by chemicals in the fruit she ate, or by the lack of essential nutrients in her diet. A raw vegan diet can lead to deficiencies in calcium, vitamin D and vitamin B12, which can cause anemia, nervous system damage, infertility and heart disease.

In her last Instagram story before her death, Ms. Samsonova posted a chilling message that read: “Life is meaningless, but worth living, provided you recognize it’s meaningless.”

Her body has not been returned to Russia due to paperwork delay. Her family is waiting for a medical report and a death certificate to show her official cause of death.

Relevant articles:
– Vegan influencer ‘dies of starvation and exhaustion’ after fruit diet | World News | Metro News, Metro News, 1 Aug 2023
– Influencer reportedly died of starvation from raw vegan diet, Fox News, 1 Aug 2023
– Vegan influencer Zhanna D’Art shared chilling message before suspected starvation death, New York Post, 1 Aug 2023
– Zhanna D’Art death updates — Vegan Instagram influencer, 39, ‘died of starvation’ say friends after exotic fruit diet, The Sun, 1 Aug 2023