Woman starved to death in Bali hotel room after following fruitarian diet and eating nothing but fruit for almost 10 years
A woman has starved to death weighing just 3.5 stone, after following a strict diet for almost a decade in which she ate nothing but fruit.
Karolina Krzyzak was only 19 years old when she began following the extremely restrictive fruitarian diet, in which she ate nothing but raw fruits.
The diet, which has faced criticism, can be supplemented by nuts, seeds, and sometimes vegetables that are botanically fruits such as tomatoes and avocados - but there’s no animal products to be consumed.
Karolina, who as a former Leeds University student, had been adopting the diet for eight years when she died of malnutrition alone in a hotel room in Bali, Indonesia, last year. At the time of her death, the 27-year-old weighed just 3.5 stone and could barely hold her balance or turn over in bed. Her fingernails had also turned yellow and her teeth had begun to rot.
A report by The Cut has retold Karolina’s story so that other people are aware of the potentially harmful affects of the wellness trend, which is often promoted on social media.
It was December 8 2024 when Karolina checked into the Sumberkima Hill. She told hotel staff of her strict dietary requirements and asked them to serve her only fruit, and also for her meals to be delivered directly to her room.
Hotel manager Bernard Hudepohl told the publication he and his staff noted Karolina's frail appearance when she arrived. According to staff reports, Karolina was “emaciated” with sunken eyes and a protruding collarbone.
She was also so fragile that the night clerk had to take her to her room as she was unable to hold up her own weight. Worried by her health, staff asked Karolina if they could call a doctor for her - but she told them no.
For the next few days, Karolina barely left her room but staff continued to deliver her packages of fruit, as per her request. They also asked again if she would like medical attention, but she again refused.
She then became so weak that she had to call staff to help her turn over in her bed. Three days after she arrived, the hotel received a call from a local resident who ran a raw-vegan café in Ubud, an area in Indonesia situated about 40 minutes away.
The fruitarian diet is not recommended by dieticians or nutritionists as it does not include important nutrients like protein, fats, and omega-3s. As part of The Eatwell Guide, the NHS recommends that to have a healthy, balanced diet, people should try to eat at least five portions of a variety of fruit and vegetables every day, but also base meals on higher fibre starchy foods like potatoes, bread, rice or pasta, as well as have proteins and dairy or dairy alternatives.
The unnamed business owner told them she had met Karolina while travelling and so knew she was at the resort, but had grown concerned after not hearing from her, and so asked the hotel to check in on her. When they carried out this welfare check, staff found Karolina dead in her room. According to those who found he body, she was found stiff and motionless on the floor and her skin was mottled and her hair grey.
According to a a former fruitarian and online friend of Karolina's who goes by the pseudonym Emilia, at the time of her death, Karolina had been suffering with developed osteoporosis and an albumin deficiency which lead to oedema and swelling of the feet.
Before she died Karolina, who loved to dance, had owned a small online jewellery business. The Polish-native had battled with anorexia for most of her teens and was thought to have weighed just 3.5 stone when she died.
At the age of 18, she moved from her home in Warsaw to the UK to attend Leeds University, which is where she first became interested in yoga and initally began following a vegan diet. Writing on Instagram at the time, she said veganism had “opened her eyes” to “so many things”, telling her followers that she was “grateful” to have found it. By her second year of study, she had moved to much more restrictive fruitarian diet.
According to The Cut, the thinner Karolina got, the more compliments she received on her Instagram account, with fans telling her she had a nice “nice neck and collarbones” during her live videos. A friend of Karolina's told the publication: “She needed medical and psychological help, and the community often validated her behaviours instead.”
Her parents became concerned by her rapid weight loss and ordered her to return home, where she started receiving treatment for her eating disorder again. She spent the spring of 2018 in an inpatient clinic, but then immediately returned to her raw fruit diet after she left and continued to eat this way for the next few years - against her parents wishes.
In September 2024, Karolina travelled to Bali so that she could meet fellow fruitarians who also shared her diet. She met a fruitarian health coach, called Graham, but even told The Cut he was worried by Karolina’s extremely low weight. He said that while she did approach him on a number of occasions to seek help for her illness, she was insistent that any kind of treatment would need to incorporate a raw vegan diet. She refused any medical treatment which went against this.
Two months later, Karolina checked into the Sumberkima Hill where she died.
* If you're worried about your own or someone else's health, you can contact Beat, the UK's eating disorder charity, on 0808 801 0677 or visit www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk