Vegan influencer Zhanna, who only ate raw vegetables and fruits for decade, dies of ‘starvation’

A Russian vegan influencer Zhanna Samsonova who promoted raw vegetarian food has died of suspected starvation as a result of following a harsh diet.

Zhanna D’Art, whose real name is Zhana Samsonova, 39, followed a diet based on eating tropical fruits, sunflower seed sprouts and juices, and she used to spend several days of what she described as dry fasting, during which she stopped eating and drinking for several days.

Samsonova, who was followed by about 21,800 people on Instagram, stopped drinking water 6 years ago, and replaced it with fruit and vegetable juices, according to Daily Mail.

The mother of the late vegetarian blogger said that her daughter had been traveling through Asia for the past 17 years, and she died after contracting a cholera-like infection as a result of her harsh diet, but the family is waiting for her body to return to Russia in order to autopsy it and confirm the circumstances of death.

The mother rejected her daughter's diet and her repeated attempts to persuade her to modify it and introduce other elements to make it balanced, but the blogger rejected all her mother's suggestions.

A friend of the blogger confirmed that she was rejecting everyone's warnings about the dangers of her harsh diet, although she was emaciated and skinny in a way that frightened him when he looked at her.

Despite the potential downsides to Samsonova’s diet, many of her devoted followers refused to believe her eating choices led to her death, instead claiming that she was killed by chemicals in the fruit she ate.