Vegan raw food influencer dead of malnourishment

Zhanna Samsonova (ZS) a raw vegan influencer on Instagram has apparently "died of malnourishment" according to local reports in a Russian publication. 

Fortunately she didn't influence me or anyone I know.

She was originally from Moscow but was living in Sri Lanka where she became as thin as wet on water and her friends were worrying about her health, according to the publication.

ZS promoted a raw vegan diet consisting mostly of fruits and vegetables that had been cooked at a low temperature and had not been processed.

She mostly promoted Southeast Asian fruits such as jackfruit and durian but was looking frail and exhausted.

On the translated version of the website one influencer "friend" said "[A] few months ago, in Sri Lanka, she already had an exhausted appearance, swollen legs. They sent her home to seek treatment. However, she ran away again. When I saw her in Phuket [Thailand], I was horrified."

The Russian news outlet RTVI reported that ZS was seeking treatment and a death certificate or cause of death has yet to be issued. The outlet said that her mom looked at her diet "negatively," but said ZS did not complain about her health to her mom possibly because she was cashing in on her Instagram gig.

But it seems like those around ZS noticed she was looking like sickly. "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 have time," the unnamed friend added.

While ZS may not have won a Darwin Award as many others have over the years, she seemed to have mistaken the idea of overdoing healthy behavior with healthy behavior. Perhaps this is a lesson for all of us to not get all of our dietary regimens from the internet.

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