Jenny McCarthy Says She ‘Literally Almost Died’ from Going Vegan

Jenny McCarthy said she “literally almost died” from a vegan diet, due to her food allergies keeping her from consuming enough nutrients.

“I became so ill from being a vegan,” the Masked Singer judge, 52, told host Maria Menounos on the March 26 episode of her podcast, Heal Squad. “I tried vegan and I almost died. I literally almost died.” 

The problem, she shared, is that she had a lot of food allergies, which went undiagnosed for years.

“I didn’t know I had a gluten and dairy problem. I thought everyone got sick when they ate,” said McCarthy, who realized she has Celiac disease, a disorder that impacts the way someone reacts to gluten, the protein in wheat, rye and barley.

“I can’t have carbs and everything is a carb,” the former Playboy star explained. “I’m also, like,  allergic to soy and everything — I was literally dying,” she continued. “I was exhausted and fatigued. I was a mess.”

She’s now on a carnivore diet, which she says at first, “felt very low vibrational, heavy. I was more eating salmon and doing light things like that, but I might as well give it a try.”

The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now!

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

McCarthy called it “my last resort diet,” but said it’s been working for her. “It has been f—ing incredible — for me. Again, I stress things as for me,” sharing that she’s seen a “huge energy” boost changing her diet.

While she shared that she won’t stay on the meat-heavy diet long-term, McCarthy said it’s helped her in the bathroom, sharing, “I literally go every day without a laxative. I was living on seven to ten aloe pills a day, just to go every four days.”

“Now I go every single day… all I eat is meat,” McCarthy, whose husband Donnie Wahlberg co-owns the Wahlburgers restaurant chain, said.