2023 in review: How a raw vegan influencer reportedly died of malnutrition

Zhanna Samsonova was a Russian food influencer, particularly known for promoting raw veganism and “healthy diet” based on only tropical fruits. She died in Malaysia on July 21, 2023, at the age of 39.

Images: Samsonova's account, rawveganfoodchef / Instagram

In one of her social media posts, Samsonova, who spent the last decade-plus traveling around South East Asia, said she had adhered to a raw food diet for more than 10 years. According to Russian media, she started as a vegetarian, eating some protein, but her diet became increasingly restrictive to the point where she was following a raw vegan diet and then cutting out even water and mostly just eating tropical fruits.

Images: rawveganfoodchef / Instagram

In Sept. 2022, she posted about the secrets of “eating a healthy diet” and said since she had switched to a “fully fruit-based-low-fat diet known as the 80/10/10 diet... I have not been sick during all that time. My mood is better, my mind clearer, I have more energy, easier to sleep, easier to wake up, I feel more stable emotionally.” Eleven weeks before her death, she described herself as a “mono fruitarian,” which also involved no salt.

Image: rawveganfoodchef / Instagram

The late Russian influencer has more than 21,000 followers on Instagram under the name Zhanna D'art, as well as a blog accessible to Russians and other social media accounts. Last year, she was offering classes on raw vegan cooking, and, in April, she said she had designed the menu for a raw-vegan/yoga retreat center.

Images: rawveganfoodchef / Instagram

Some of Samsonova’s friends told Russian media that her diet was what lead to her death. Her latest photos showed that she was emaciated, though she still promoted her fruit-based diet as healthy.

Images: rawveganfoodchef / Instagram

Her friend Olga Chernyaeva told Russian newspaper Novye Izvestia that she watched her friend “journey to death for seven years.” The last time she saw her, around five months ago in Sri Lanka, Olga said her friend was “only bones” and practically bed-bound, almost unable to walk. Even in the days before she died, one follower said that she looks like she is starving.

Image: rawveganfoodchef / Instagram

Chernyaeva said she had tried to convince her fruitarian friend to seek help and eat something more substantial, but it was “impossible to convince her on certain issues.” She said Zhana believed “death does not exist.”

Image: rawveganfoodchef / Instagram

Samsonova’s devastated mother Vera told 116 Ru that the cause of death isn’t known and they are trying to transport her body back to Russia. Vera believes Zhanna died of complications from a cholera-like infection, although it may have been exacerbated by the extreme diet. Vera recognizes that she “struggled for many years” trying to convince her daughter to change her diet, but pleaded for people online to stop writing “nasty things” about her dead daughter.

Images: rawveganfoodchef / Instagram

In her final social media post, less than two weeks before she died, Zhana said that life was still worth living, but only “provided you recognize its meaningless.” Unfortunately, her fragile body was unable to go on.

Images: rawveganfoodchef / Instagram

Samsonova told her followers that she avoided getting sick, looking young, and feeling great because of her restrictive diet. In a 2021 post, she said all food besides fruit and veggies will “make u sick sooner or later… and that “eating raw plant-based lifestyle and is all about self love.”

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She went back to Russia for a few months in 2021, but there she caught COVID. She told her followers that she cured herself of the severe disease with “dry fasting” which involved no food or water for around 10 days. She said she had been practicing the method for a long time “as a cure for all ailments.”

Image: rawveganfoodchef / Instagram

Samsonova isn’t the only person to have tried a fruitarian diet. Apple founder Steve Jobs followed it on and off, and when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, he opted for alternative medicine, passing away at the age of 56. Actor Ashton Kutcher also tried the diet in preparation for a role-playing Steve Jobs. He later said it landed him in the hospital with pancreas levels “that were completely out of whack,” so he stopped it.

Although fruits are healthy, dieticians warn against eating only fruit. That’s because someone eating just fruit is missing out on a lot of valuable nutrients like proteins and fats since both are crucial to maintaining normal bodily functions. Fruit also contains a lot of natural sugar, which can be hard for the body to process.

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While many say veganism, a diet often adopted for ethical reasons, can be done in a healthy, balanced way, experts say that highly restrictive diets like veganism, raw veganism or fruitarianism can be a way to mask an eating disorder... or even trigger one. “Going on any kind of diet where you’re paying a lot of attention to what you eat or don’t eat puts you at risk for an eating disorder,” Dr. Marcia Herrin, founder of the Dartmouth College Eating Disorders Prevention, told the Daily Beast. “Especially when you label certain foods as ‘bad.’”

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Online, many suggest that Samsonova was suffering from anorexia or another proposed eating disorder called orthorexia, characterized by an obsession with eating only healthy food. This trend is also related to the fixation on “clean eating,” which is widely promoted by social media influencers and in the media. It’s a new term, but some studies suggest this potentially dangerous eating disorder affects between 1% to 7% of the population.

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The influencer’s death has triggered a significant debate on social networks, with some criticizing her for promoting an unhealthy diet and others calling for empathy and understanding around what may be a mental health issue. Many vegans insist that her diet was not a good representation of veganism/raw veganism because she wasn’t eating balanced foods or enough of them... while others say that she shows the dangers of this kind of restrictive diet.

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