Vegan Influencer Zhanna Samsonova Dies at 39: Is Vegan Diet All About Starvation, How Unhealthy it is?

Raw vegan food influencer Zhanna Samsonova passed away few days ago and since then, veganism has been a hot topic of debate. Is it really healthy? How much is too much vegan?

Health trends keep changing and evolving. while COVID-19 did induce a more sedentary lifestyle, it has made many of us, more health conscious as well. There are several diet fads like Mediterranean, MIND diet, vegan diet etc. While some remain a fad and fade away with time, some are here to stay. Veganism is a growing trend that is gaining much traction worldwide. Recently, there has been a lot of debate around the same after a vegan influencer Zhanna Samsonova passed away at the age of 39 years.

Samsonova was a vegan raw food influencer who has her social media documenting her diet regime. According to a report by the Independent, her friends and family were quoted saying by Newsflash that she “died of starvation and exhaustion” after subsisting exclusively on a “completely raw vegan diet” in Malaysia.

Since her demise, there are looming questions about the unhealthy-healthy ratio of veganism. Is it all about starving? How healthy or unhealthy it is?

What Happened to Zhanna D’art ?

While the mother of the Russian influencer said that her daughter died due to “cholera-like infection,”, the real cause of death is not yet revealed. “A few months ago, in Sri Lanka, she already looked exhausted, with swollen legs oozing lymph,” one friend told Newsflash. “They sent her home to seek treatment. However, she ran away again. When I saw her in Phuket, I was horrified.”

Her friend added, “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.”

How Healthy is a Vegan Diet?

A vegan diet is essentially a plant-based diet. Having a full-blown vegan diet is never recommended because there has to be a balance of both micronutrients and macronutrients. Vegan food has its own restrictions in terms of the content of protein, healthy fat, and carbohydrate.

• Cooked food helps in the absorption of vitamins and minerals which cannot happen with just fruits and raw veggies.
• Some nutritionists argue that it might be a little difficult to obtain all the required nutrients from just raw fruits and vegetables. If not taken in balance, vegan diet can lead to potential deficiencies like vitamin D, calcium, iron, vitamin B12, iron, protein etc.
• One can get low on energy due to a lack of proper nutrition that helps the body to get and use that energy for optimal functioning.
• Eating raw vegan diet can also make someone prone to Orthorexia. According to WebMd, it is an unhealthy focus on eating in a healthy way. Eating nutritious food is good, but if you have orthorexia, you obsess about it to a degree that can damage your overall well-being. Steven Bratman, MD, a California doctor, coined the term in 1996. It means “fixation on righteous eating.” Since then, many medical professionals have accepted the concept.

Due to low-calorie content, these help with weight loss and have health benefits to only when consumed in a balanced fashion. It is important to change diets under the supervision of a professional to help maintain the balance of all vitamins, minerals etc.