Noted vegan raw food diet advocate Zhanna Samsonova posted a haunting message on Instagram shortly before her alleged death from malnutrition on July 21.
“Life is devoid of purpose, but worth experiencing, if you accept its purposelessness,” Samsonova, 39, expressed in an Instagram story a fortnight before.
The quote overlays an image of the mesmerizing blue-eyed influencer, known on TikTok as Zhanna D’Art, with a total of 27.6 million views, displaying a surprised expression.
Following the announcement of her death in local media, the Russian influencer’s accounts have been flooded with messages of condolence.
Friends and family told Newsflash that the food influencer reportedly “died from starvation and exhaustion” after living solely on an exotic fruit diet in Malaysia. Concerns over Samsonova’s dietary choices and her noticeably deteriorating physique led her to seek medical help while touring Southeast Asia.
Samsonova’s mother attributed her demise to a “cholera-like infection”; however, the official cause of death is yet to be determined.
The native of Kazan, who championed a diet of raw plant-based food, claimed she had been consuming a “strictly raw vegan diet” comprising sunflower seed sprouts, fruits, juices, and fruit smoothies, for the past four years.
A friend, however, asserted that Samsonova had been eating only durian and the oversized, sweet jackfruit, a mace-like spiky fruit known for its repulsive smell and creamy pulp, for the past seven years.
Despite the potential benefits of a raw foods diet — such as weight loss, enhanced heart health, and reduced diabetes risk, as stated by Healthline — such a diet can pose several health risks if not adequately planned.
These risks include deficiencies in calcium and vitamin D, essential for bone health, potentially leading to insufficient B12 levels, resulting in anemia, damage to the nervous system, infertility, and even heart disease.
A recent study published in the Journal of Nutrition revealed that all participants on a raw vegan diet should consume 2.4 micrograms of vitamin B12 daily to maintain good health.
However, despite the apparent problems with Samsonova’s dietary choices, many of her loyal followers dismissed the idea that her eating habits led to her demise, instead blaming her death on chemicals in the fruit she consumed.
Yet, others online point to her alarming — and potentially lethal — diet as a caution against fad diets deficient in vital nutrients.
