Vera Samsonova, 63, said her daughter Zhanna Samsonova, who is known as Zhanna D’Art on her popular social media channels, said she “did not listen to her”

The mother of a vegan influencer who died after living off an exotic fruit diet has said she “fought for years” to save her daughter.

Vera Samsonova, 63, said her daughter Zhanna Samsonova, who is known as Zhanna D’Art on her popular social media channels, said she “did not listen to her” when she warned her about the effects of her extremely restrictive diet.

The Russian girl who had been living in South Asia ate a diet solely of fruits, sunflower seed sprouts, fruit smoothies and juices.

She sadly died on July 21 in Malaysia, a few days after sharing a post which said: “Life is meaningless.”

She sadly died on July 21 in Malaysia ( 
Image: Newsflash)

Her friends say she sadly was suffering from an eating disorder ( 
Image: @rawveganfoodchef/Instagram)

Her mother has spoken of her anguish over her death, which she believes was the result of a cholera-like infection that was exacerbated by her extreme diet. However, the official cause of death has not yet been determined. Her friends say she sadly was suffering from an eating disorder and they claim she was practically bed-bound as it would take her “several minutes” to walk up one step on a staircase.

Vera said: “She is no more. 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.” While Olga Chernyaeva, one of the influencer’s friends, told the Russian newspaper Novye Izvestia: “I tried to talk to her, to convince her to seek help from doctors, to take tests.

But it was impossible to convince her on certain issues.” 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.

One anonymous friend said: “They sent her home to seek treatment. However, she ran away again. 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.” Zhanna boasted on social media about eating no salt, oil or protein and insisted that she never caught a cold.

When Ms Samsonova first embraced a healthy diet, she reportedly ate fish and dairy products. However, she became increasingly restrictive, cutting out important sources of protein such as nuts. A raw food diet can have multiple health benefits but there are also significant downsides to a solely raw diet according to Healthline.

These include deficiencies in calcium and vitamin D, which are needed for strong bones. This could cause B12 levels to plummet, which can result in anaemia, nervous system damage, infertility and, somewhat paradoxically, heart disease. A study published earlier this month in the Journal of Nutrition found that 100 per cent of participants on a raw vegan diet ingested less than the recommended 2.4mcg of vitamin B12 per day.