Vegan raw food influencer's chilling final Instagram post before dying of 'starvation'
Zhanna Samsonova, originally from Russia and known as Zhanna D'Art on social media, had been on the raw plant-based diet for ten years that consisted of fruits, sunflower seed sprouts, fruit smoothies and juices.
A vegan raw food influencer shared a chilling post just days before she died from starvation and exhaustion after living on "extreme diet".
Zhanna Samsonova, known as Zhanna D'Art online, had been on a diet that consisted of raw plant-based foods like smoothies, fruits and juices.
There were periods when Zhanna would practice "dry fasting" and she would refuse to eat or drink anything for days.
The 39-year-old, who had over 17,000 followers on Instagram, had been travelling across Asia for 17 years before reportedly dying from a cholera-like infection made worse by her extreme dieting, her mother told Russian newspaper Vechernyaya Kazan.
In the days before her death, she shared a post which read "Life is meaningless but worth living, provided you recognize it's meaningless".
Zhanna shared the selfie along with the text on Instagram just days before news broke of her death.
The food blogger's mother Vera Samsonova told local news outlets that her daughter was supposed to fly home to Kazan, Russia, on the day of her death.
Vera did not approve of Zhanna's extreme diet and tried to convince her to include more balanced eating habits but she refused. Zhanna made the shift from being a vegan to eating purely raw foods after insisting it was "healthy".
The influencer appeared increasingly emaciated in her videos, as viewers shared their concerns about her weight.
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Zhanna was seen eating a whole melon and carrot juice for her lunch, while another meal consisted of cherry tomatoes, an avocado and avocado juice.
Writing in an old post, she said: "Despite the fact that I cook fancy raw dishes, I eat very simply myself. My food is simple, no oil, no salt, no dehydrated food and no protein. Today for lunch I have delicious avocado kefir, sweet cherry tomatoes and ripe avocado. Bon appetit."
Friends worried for her welfare, with one telling Russian news outlet 116.ru: "It was scary to look at her, to be honest, her hands were like those of my 12-year-old sister, thin."
Another friend said 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," the friend added.
Another friend said: "Ms Samsonova's idle starvation was causing her to melt before our eyes, but she believed everything was fine. Only her eyes, merry eyes, and gorgeous hair compensated for the dreadful sight of a body tortured by idiocy. Forgive me if it sounds harsh."
Zhanna had previously claimed that she managed to "cure" her Covid symptoms by dry fasting which she claimed can "cure all ailments".
