A vegan influencer has reportedly died from starvation and exhaustion after moving to Sri Lanka and switching to a restrictive tropical fruit diet
Zhanna Samsonova, originally from Russia, had been living in South-East Asia and eating an exclusively raw vegan diet consisting of ‘fruits, sunflower seed sprouts, fruit smoothies and juices’ for the past five years.
However, her eating habits became worryingly restrictive in the last few months of her life according to her friends.
The 40-year-old, known as Zhanna D’Art online, passed away on July 21 reportedly from a ‘cholera-like infection’ exacerbated by ‘exhaustion of the body by a vegan diet’ her mother told Russian newspaper Vechernyaya Kazan.
Zhanna’s official cause of death has not yet been determined as her family is trying to get her body back to Russia.
The food blogger’s mum Vera Samsonova told local news outlets Zhanna was supposed to fly home to Kazan on the day of her death.
Vera did not approve of her daughter’s extreme diet and tried to convince her to introduce more balanced eating habits but she refused.
Speaking with Newsflash, an anonymous friend of Zhanna claimed they saw Zhanna a few months ago in Sri Lanka ‘looking exhausted’.
‘They sent her home to seek treatment. However, she ran away again. When I saw her in Phuket, I was horrified,’ they said.
‘I lived one floor above her and every day I feared finding her lifeless body in the morning. I convinced her to seek treatment, but she didn’t make it.’
