At the height of her illness, Bailey Kreinbrink slept as many as 17 hours a day. The pain was so intense that even taking a single bite of food could leave her in agony.
The Georgia student had experienced unexplained health problems since her teenage years, including aching joints, migraines and severe bloating.
By her early twenties, nearly everything she ate—from chicken and vegetables to bread and smoothies—could set off excruciating pain. At times, she felt unable to move for as long as two hours.
Her heart occasionally raced to 200 beats per minute, and even mild exercise could leave her confined to bed for several days.
“I could eat anything and it would feel as though someone had poured acid down my spine. I just wanted to rip my skin off,” Bailey, now 28, told the Daily Mail. “My body was shutting down.”
Although she could barely eat, Bailey had gained 50 pounds, leaving doctors struggling to determine the cause of her symptoms.
Food-sensitivity testing indicated that she reacted to roughly 30 foods, but eliminating them from her diet made little difference.
Then, during a family trip to Italy in 2022, Bailey made a surprising discovery.
Bailey Kreinbrink (right, with her parents) could barely eat or get out of bed when her family went on a cruise to Italy that inspired an unlikely experiment
She had long noticed that she felt better in Italy, so she decided to find out whether she could eat foods there that made her sick at home.
To her surprise, she says she was able to eat all 30 foods without a reaction. Her energy began returning, too.
Yet after going back to Georgia, she found that every one of those foods triggered her symptoms again.
“How can the same potato or tomato be fine in one place but impossible for me to eat in another?” she asked.
Determined to investigate, Bailey returned to Italy in May 2023. This time, she spent six weeks on the Amalfi Coast while completing part of her master’s program.
Her experiment was straightforward: she would eat the foods she believed were making her ill in the US and see whether her improvement continued.
She also stopped limiting herself to vegetables and other foods generally considered healthy.
Breakfast frequently meant coffee, biscotti and cereal. Throughout the day, she ate Nutella sandwiches and pizza topped with burrata, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
Pasta appeared on the dinner table almost every night, often followed by gelato.
“It is the kind of food we often think of as indulgent, heavy on carbohydrates and, to some extent, unhealthy,” she said.
Still, Bailey says the symptoms that had controlled her life for five years vanished within weeks.
“Every one of my symptoms disappeared completely,” she said.
In the final week of her stay, she even completed a 5K race—an astonishing change for someone who had previously struggled to walk around the block.
When she called her mother with the news, her mother cried and told her, “Oh my gosh, we finally have our answer.”
Bailey also says she eventually lost the 50 pounds she had gained during her illness. She believes much of that weight was linked to inflammation and fluid retention.
Convinced that something in Italian food was responsible, she returned to the US with a suitcase filled with pasta and pesto.
Despite not being able to eat much, Bailey had gained 50lbs (pictured left). She told the Daily Mail that after adopting an Italian diet, the weight quickly fell off (right)
“I decided I would never eat American food again,” she said. “I have my life back—why would I choose to go through that again?”
But what, exactly, could explain the difference?
Bailey’s story echoes a widely discussed phenomenon online: Americans with digestive problems often say they can eat bread, pasta, cheese and other foods in Europe without developing their usual symptoms.
In one Reddit discussion, a woman with irritable bowel syndrome and lactose intolerance said she ate pizza, pasta and gelato throughout an Italian vacation without becoming bloated.
Another person said two weeks in Italy improved their digestion, skin and mood.
Stories like these have strengthened the popular belief that European food is healthier or easier to digest than comparable products in the US.
The two food systems do have important differences.
The European Union applies different rules to food additives and pesticides, and some ingredients allowed in American products are restricted or banned in Europe.
“In my practice, I frequently see highly processed foods, additives and individual food sensitivities contribute to digestive symptoms and inflammation. For some people, simpler meals made with fewer ingredients may be easier to tolerate,” Kristen White, a registered dietitian nutritionist in private practice, told the Daily Mail.
She added that pesticide exposure “is another factor worth considering.”
“The United States and the European Union use different pesticide approval systems and regulatory standards. The EU takes a more precautionary approach and restricts or bans certain pesticides that remain permitted in the US,” she said.
“That does not mean all European produce is free of pesticides or that farming practices across Europe are universally safer.”
Bailey told the Daily Mail that pasta and pizza became staples in her diet while living on the Amalfi Coast and in Florence. She now eats out for almost every meal while she’s in Italy
Processing techniques, recipes and serving sizes can differ as well.
“Traditional Italian eating patterns—fresh seasonal ingredients, smaller portions, slower meals and a stronger focus on whole foods—may also benefit digestion and weight management,” White said.
Some research even suggests that foods commonly labeled unhealthy may have unexpected effects.
A 2023 Italian study of 365 people with rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease that causes painful joint inflammation, found that participants who ate more than half a pizza each week had significantly lower disease activity.
The researchers reported an association with up to 70 percent lower odds of more severe disease, although the study did not prove that pizza itself was responsible.
Separately, a 2022 study in The Journal of Nutrition found that pasta’s structure can slow carbohydrate digestion, producing a more gradual blood-sugar increase than foods such as bread.
None of those findings, however, proves that American food caused Bailey’s illness—or that Italian food cured it.
The foods she described eating in Italy included pizza, pastries, chocolate spread and gelato, which do not necessarily reflect the traditional Mediterranean diet associated with better long-term health.
That eating pattern generally emphasizes vegetables, fruit, legumes, whole grains, nuts and olive oil, with more moderate amounts of dairy and meat.
Research suggests that a Mediterranean-style diet may help reduce inflammation and improve several health markers.
But that is not the same as proving that moving between countries can resolve a serious, unexplained illness.
Several other factors could have contributed to Bailey’s recovery.
Travel can alter stress levels, sleep, physical activity, meal schedules and eating routines—all of which may affect digestion and overall wellbeing.
Even foods that appear identical can contain different ingredients or be prepared in different ways.
When Bailey first moved to Italy, she focused on meeting local farmers and business owners to learn what it was about the food that made her feel so different compared to in the US
Most importantly, doctors never identified the underlying cause of Bailey’s symptoms, so it is impossible to determine whether dietary changes were responsible for her recovery.
At various points, doctors suggested rheumatoid arthritis, the autoimmune condition that causes painful joint inflammation, and a sleep disorder that might explain her extreme fatigue.
Neither possibility became an official diagnosis.
“Changes in food quality, ingredients, preparation and overall eating habits may have played a role in her improvement, but we cannot conclude that Italian food treated an autoimmune disease,” White said.
“My advice to Americans is to look beyond a food’s country of origin. Focus instead on food quality, minimally processed ingredients, identifying personal sensitivities and finding an eating pattern that helps you feel your best.”
The absence of a confirmed diagnosis makes Bailey’s experience especially difficult to interpret.
Still, she continued her investigation. In February 2024, Bailey returned to Italy for three months, meeting farmers and food producers to learn about cultivation, pesticides, livestock standards and wheat processing.
She became convinced that differences in food production were a key part of her recovery.
Today, Bailey splits her time between Italy and the US, spending several months at a time in Florence.
While in Italy, she follows a notably unrestricted diet.
Bailey told the Daily Mail she usually eats multiple scoops of gelato a day while she’s in Florence
A typical day might begin with a cinnamon roll and cappuccino, followed a few hours later by gelato. Lunch is often pizza, pasta or a sandwich. Dinner could be pasta with ragù or Florentine steak served with vegetables and potatoes.
“I do not restrict my food at all,” she said. “If I see something I want and can eat it, I eat it.”
When she is back in Georgia, she depends heavily on food she imports or sources from Italy.
She has also built a business around her experience. Through Health Journey Through Food, she sells Italian food products and recommends other items on her website.
Bailey says she no longer needs medication or supplements and now sees doctors only for routine checkups.
She acknowledges that others may not experience the same results.
Although the exact reason for her dramatic improvement remains unclear, Bailey says there is no question about what it has given her.
“I believe food can be medicine because food became medicine for my body when medicine could not do anything,” she said.
