Raw food influencer Zhanna Samsonova reportedly dies after extreme diet exacerbates infection

A raw food vegan iNFLuencer who went on an extreme diet of exotic fruits has reportedly died of hunger and exhaustion after contracting an infection.

Zhanna Samsonova, who is from Russia, had been consuming only raw foods such as fruits, suNFLower seed sprouts, fruit smoothies and juices for the last five years.

Zhanna further restricted her eating habits in the last few months, according to her friends.

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The 39-year-old woman, known online as Zhanna D’Art, died on July 21, reportedly of a “cholera-like infection” which was exacerbated by “body exhaustion” from an extremely limited diet, her mother Vera Samsonova told Russian newspaper Vechernyaya Kazan.

Zhanna previously detailed how she stopped eating and drinking for days when she contracted COVID in 2021.

“I completely lost my appetite, and I decided not to force my body, but simply to give it a rest, refraining from any food and drink,” she wrote on social media at the time.

The official cause of Zhanna’s death has not been determined, but many netizens have slammed assumptions that a raw vegan diet was solely behind her death, suggesting she was hiding an eating disorder or another illness.

Her family is now aiming to return Zhanna’s body to Russia. It is known that she had lived in Sri Lanka for several years.