Vegan Influencer Starves to Death After Promoting Raw Tropical Fruit Diet
Russian blogger Zhanna Samsonova has died at 39.
The term "orthorexia," coined in 1998 describes an obsession with "healthy" eating that turns dangerous. "Although being aware of and concerned with the nutritional quality of the food you eat isn't a problem in and of itself, people with orthorexia become so fixated on so-called 'healthy eating' that they actually damage their own well-being," explains the National Eating Disorder Association. In recent years with the rise of social media and health influencers, it seems there has been an uptick in the condition, and the recent death of vegan influencer, Zhanna Samsonova, is a scary warning of just how dangerous it can be.
Russian blogger Zhanna Samsonova regularly shared photos, videos, and commentary about her vegan diet, which consisted of only raw, tropical fruit and vegetables. However, according to reports she died in Malaysia on July 21 due to malnutrition, exhaustion, and infections.
The 39-year-old old regularly told her followers that she did not believe in drinking water, consuming only fruit and vegetable juices for the past six years. "As for not drinking water, it is a common experience among raw fruitarians. I'm not thirsty for water. I don't want to drink water!
I get my water from fruits and coconuts and I'm OK with it!" she wrote in one of her posts.
She claimed that people couldn't believe she was almost 40, attributing her youthful look to eating "simple food, although I have a lot of experience as a raw food chef," she wrote on social media. "I love creating my own recipes and inspiring people to eat healthier."
She also consumed zero salt, oil, or protein. She insisted that her healthy diet resulted in her never catching a cold.
However, she passed away on July 21, after suffering a "cholera-like infection," according to her mother. According to her friends, she had become seriously emaciated and died of malnutrition.
"It was scary to look at her, to be honest. Her hands were thin, like those of my 12-year-old sister," a friend told 116.RU, a Russian news website. "But she was always very cheerful, like a child, she was happy when people praised her cooking, she always ran everywhere, she took pictures."
Another friend revealed that after sparking major concern, she was advised to seek medical assistance but reportedly refused. "When I saw her later in Phuket, I was horrified. I lived one floor above her and every day I feared finding her lifeless body in the morning," said the unnamed friend.
Her mother has asked people to "stop writing bad things," about her death. "She is already dead, she is no more," said Vera Samsonova, 63. "Please stop writing bad things, it hurts me a lot. She chose this path. I fought for many years [but] she did not listen to her mother."
