Popular diet that ‘almost killed’ US star

Hollywood actress and former Playboy bunny Jenny McCarthy has claimed she ‘almost died’ after giving this popular diet a try.

Jenny McCarthy claimed she “almost died” after switching to a plant-based diet before doing a complete 180.

The former Playboy star, 52, explained how switching her diet helped heal her body during Wednesday’s episode of the “Heal Squad x Maria Menounos” podcast.

“I tried vegan and I almost died. I literally almost died,” she told host Maria Menounos. “I became so ill from being a vegan.”

McCarthy said that eliminating animal products from her diet while simultaneously getting enough calories was nearly impossible due to her food intolerances — such as coeliac disease, dairy issue and a soy allergy.

Jenny McCarthy attends the 2025 iHeartRadio Music Awards. Picture: Getty.

“I can’t have carbs and everything is a carb,” she explained. “I’m also allergic to soy and everything [has soy].”

“I was literally dying,” she continued. “I was exhausted and fatigued. I was a mess.”

The “Masked Singer” star said she is also “healing” from the fungal infection Candida, Hashimoto’s disease — a chronic auto-immune condition that impacts the thyroid gland — and Leaky gut syndrome.

“Healing leaky gut and candida can take years — it 100 per cent takes years,” she said. “So I did all kinds of diets … I also have MCAS, a histamine intolerance, so I went on a low-histamine diet, I went on every one of them.”

However, last year, her “functional medicine doctor” told her it was “time” to “go full carnivore,” meaning a meal plan consisting of only meat, poultry, eggs, seafood and fish.

“I was like, ‘Ugh, okay,’ I mean I’m from Chicago so I can handle it but it just felt very low vibrational [and] heavy for me,” she said. “Like I was kind of more eating salmon and very light things like that but I was like, ‘I might as well give it a try.’”

McCarthy eventually managed to find a diet that worked for her body. Picture: Getty.

Although it was her “last resort diet,” McCarthy said “it has been f — king incredible” for her.

“It changed my energy and my digestion. I have been a constipated little girl since I was younger … like from the time I was young I’d have to get enemas.”

“Now that I started carnivore, I literally go every day without a laxative,” she added.

However, she emphasised that a carnivore diet might not work for everyone — just like a vegan diet didn’t work for her.

“Some people work [and] heal better on a vegan diet and some people don’t,” McCarthy said. “It’s what you believe and you have to follow your intuition and then also follow what your blood says or what your body says. Your body will let you know, by the way.”

This story originally appeared on Page Six and is republished here with permission.

Originally published as Popular diet that ‘almost killed’ US star