History Main / HyperactiveMetabolism

* In ''{{Rhapsodies}}'' the extremely hyper Brian is able to drink his larger older brother under the table due to his [[http://rhapsodies.wpmorse.com/comic/10122011/ "kick ass metabolism."]]

* ''DivineDivinity'' has foods to eat, some which can heal, others might temporarily increase your stats or other things. You can eat only limited amount of them in a certain period of time, though, since the character will complain that s/he's full if you eat too much.

* ''VideoGame/{{Runescape}}'' is especially stupid about this: eating 28 whole sharks in 5 minutes is not only non-fatal, it's actually healthy. In contrast, a bad kebab can kill you if you're not lucky. And your character has a bad habit of eating pointy fish like lobsters and swordfish fast enough that it should do at least as much damage to you as the enemy's sword.

[[folder:Advertising]]
* An ad for the relatively healthy fast-food chain Subway shows a platformer character doing this with more traditional fast food, and consequently getting too fat to fit through gaps.
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** And then you have the senzu.

** There's also a technique for this trope. Is called Life Return, was used by Kumadori after eating all the food in the fridge in which he was locked. After using the technique he became slim, and then adquired his normal appeareance.

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* The inspiration for the ''TheFlash'' example below, Wally West, during his time as the Flash would be see pigging out on various high carb foods (usually by downing candy bars or tons of fast food) because his super speed would cause him to burn through the calories dangerously.
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* John gains one of these in ''Fanfic/WithStringsAttached'' as part of [[BlessedWithSuck a number of physical changes inflicted upon him]]. He pretty much has to eat constantly, and wears a food pouch all the time that he tries to keep full of jerky, dried fruit, and other convenient munchies. When he's hungry, as he says, he "fades pretty fast."

* In ''Literature/SonicTheHedgehogInRobotniksLaboratory'' Sonic claims that he needs to be [[BigEater constantly eating]] because ne needs the energy to keep running.

* In the live action adaptation of ''Series/TheFlash'', Barry Allen's super speed caused him to consume ''enormous'' quantities of food (sometimes he even had to ''eat'' at super speed).

* Mike Peterson from ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' mentions that as a result of the [[SuperSerum Extremis]] in his veins, he needs to eat four times as much as he used to in order to properly fuel his body.

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Kid Flash in ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' has to keep up his strength by eating constantly to offset the fast-burn from his super speed. Once he's eaten he's ''immediately'' ready to go, rather than having to take time to digest it.
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* ''Videogame/SengokuBasara'', as Capcom's version of Samurai Warriors, also uses nigiri and alcohol as healing items. Crates of rice fills both health and the Basara gauge.

* For any players for ''VideoGame/SaintsRow'', do you get hungry for some Freckle Bitch's? Where a bite of a burger restores you from near death.

** Cheesecake boosts your intelligence? [[{{Smerf}} I'll]] keep that in mind for my final tomorrow!

* In ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'', while Alex does have a HealingFactor, he gains health back ''much'' faster by [[ImAHumanitarian eating people]] and his HealingFactor can only heal him up to half of his max health. More powerful victims like Hunters and Leader Hunters restore a huge chunk of the lifebar when eaten.

* Food items that heal are readily available throughout the zone in ''VideoGame/{{STALKER}}''. They don't heal much health but are also necessary to [[WizardNeedsFoodBadly stave off hunger]].

* Anything living in ''JawsUnleashed'' can be consumed for health.
* Medkits in DeadIsland are rare, so you'll have to rely on the energy drinks, candy bars, and fruit scattered all over the island for health. Energy drinks in particular are extremely common; it's a wonder how the player character can down eight cans in a row without suffering from a heart attack.

* ''{{Solatorobo}}'' has Red chowing down on meat to replenish his health (and [[OralFixationFixation constantly chewing on a]] StockFemurBone). Surprisingly, Red and his MiniMecha share a health bar, so eating meat also heals the robot. [[spoiler:Or not so surprisingly, once you learn that Red is capable of ''fusing'' with Dahak due to {{Nanomachines}}.]]

* In ''VideoGame/{{Kolibri}}'', Kolibri regains health by sipping nectar from blossoms. This is justified as RealLife hummingbirds are famous for having a very high rate of metabolism.

* In ''VideoGame/MonkeyHero'' Slices of peach pie restore 8 peaches of health. Mushrooms fully restore your health and can double as an AutoRevive.

* Played straight in ''AlienDice''; however, the 'food' was not exactly organic material, and has odd and often medical properties.

* Lampshaded in ''ElGoonishShive'', when Ellen and Nanase are playing ''VideoGame/FableII''. [[http://www.egscomics.com/egsnp/?date=2009-12-01 "And we can use pies to keep our HP up!"]] Sure enough, after the fight the character is almost spherical. Celery will fix that, though.

* ''VideoGame/Mabinogi'' has this. Your stamina, which affects your ability to fight, use combat skills, or use other skills, is affected by your hunger. There are potions in game to restore stamina; but the amount they restore is strongly affected by your hunger level. The more hungry you are, the lower your maximum stamina. There's also the issue that using too many potions at once will give you an overdose and you lose health/mp/stamina depending on the trait.

* Lampshaded in ''ElGoonishShive'', when two cast members are playing some kind of RPG. "And we can use pies to keep our HP up!" Sure enough, after the fight the character is almost spherical. Celery will fix that, though.

* Food items that heal are readily available throughout the zone in ''{{STALKER}}''. They don't heal much health but are also necessary to [[WizardNeedsFoodBadly stave off hunger]].

* Discussed in a ''Website/{{Cracked}}'' article: [[http://www.cracked.com/blog/7-bullshit-video-game-healing-methods/ 7 Video Game Healing Methods Least Likely to Actually Work]]

** In the expansion pack, it may be a [[NightmareFuel bit disturbing]] to suddenly realize that the pile of dust in the ancient ruins you've been contemplating eating for status buffs is actually [[spoiler:the vaporized remains of a dwarf.]]

Video game characters have long had the amazing ability to [[HealThyself heal wounds]] through a good filling meal and/or a [[TraumaInn quick nap]]. One is left to conclude that the heroes in video games possess a Hyperactive Metabolism that quickly digests food and converts it to the necessary proteins needed for bodily repair.

* In ''BraveFencerMusashi'', the title character could consume mints to reduce fatigue, or food such as bread and oranges to restore health and bincho power. However, since time flows as a seven-day week, milk, bread, and oranges would spoil and restore very little health. The only items that ''improved'' over long periods of time were the cheese and the milk, the latter only after going "sour" and getting weaker first. Give it a little longer and it turns into "yoghurt" which is about five times as good as milk.

** Later ''VideoGame/{{Castlevania}}'' games, notably the ''{{Metroidvania}}'' style, started giving you more and more food items, along with more typical healing potions, to round out your diet. The further the games went, the more varied the food items got. ''[[CastlevaniaPortraitOfRuin Portrait of Ruin]]'' has foods like Beef Jerky, Ground Meat, Grapes, Penne Arrabiata, and Cheesecake.

* In NES game ''RiverCityRansom'', the heroes would every so often visit shopping malls where you could buy everything from books (to learn new abilities) to food (with which you could heal yourself and up your stats.) This trope was carried to its esophageally unpleasant extreme as practically every sit-down restaurant sold the plates the food came on as part of the meal, which the hero... would promptly eat. All in one gulp.

* Taken to a ridiculous length in ''FarCry 2'' - any bottle of water will restore your health completely. Even if you've been hit with an rocket and pummelled by a machine gun a single bottle of water brings you back to full health.

** ''VideoGame/{{Bioshock 2}}'' superficially expanded the set of consumable items, adding not only more mundane food items like canned goods and cola but vitamins, aspirin, fresh water, and something called "Doc Hollcroft's Cure-All", which restores both health and EVE despite being, as an audio diary [[AllThereInTheManual on the website]] reveals, a placebo.

* ''{{Runescape}}'' is especially stupid about this: eating 28 whole sharks in 5 minutes is not only non-fatal, it's actually healthy. In contrast, a bad kebab can kill you if you're not lucky. And your character has a bad habit of eating pointy fish like lobsters and swordfish fast enough that it should do at least as much damage to you as the enemy's sword.

* ''RagnarokOnline'' while being a normal fantasy MMO with the use of potions for healing does also have a good deal of food in it too. Below, say, level 40 meat is a more economical way to regain health than the cheapest potions if you can manage carrying the weight and while not being particularly useful you can still eat apples, bananas, or carrots (including juice if you've got the bottles for them) to fill your HP bar and oranges fill your MP. There is no limit to how much you can eat.

* In the SNES platformer ''[[EVOTheSearchForEden EVO]]'', food didn't just heal you, it literally [[RuleOfCool allowed you to evolve into new forms]].

* Although the game ''{{N}}'' does not have food, it does explain the ninja as having a hyperactive metabolism, thus explaining the [[TimedMission 90 second time limit]] on all levels. This metabolism is handled a different way, however: collecting gold grants 2 extra seconds to the time limit apiece, explained as a rush of joy which contributes to well being.

* Averted in ''{{Purple}}'', where the only point of eating food is for HundredPercentCompletion... and ScoringPoints. They don't restore health.

* ''{{Mayflight}}'', like ''{{N}}'' above, does it with something other than food - In its case, 'Sparks,' which extend your natural life from ten seconds by between 2 and 0.5 seconds each.

* ''BatenKaitos'' also uses food as healing items. One interesting change is that the food here ''does'' spoil, and cleverly the rotten food be used to damage or poison baddies. Averted in ''Origins'', where the only healing items are potions, bandages, and magical artifacts.

* SquareEnix's iPhone RPG ''Chaos Rings'' used various types of Chocolate as healing items, which makes some sense. Chocolate heals a little, while Gateau Chocolate healed a lot, which makes less sense.

** ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}'' also deserves mention. If you keep a bottle of fresh milk in your inventory for a while, it becomes rotten and heals an insignificant amount of health. If you keep it around even longer, though, it turns into yogurt, one of the best early healing items.

** In the original ''Fable'', a player would think nothing of [[http://www.dansdata.com/fable.htm eating a hundred carrots in the middle of a battle]].

* Food serves as weak healing items in ''{{Persona 3}}'' and ''[[{{Persona4}} 4]]''. It's rarely worth using in comparison to medicine-type items, and in Persona 3, many food items also have additional adverse effects. Persona 4 does have one [[GuideDangIt easily missed]] yet useful food item, and the food items that your team members give you throughout dungeons are often more effective.

* ''StarOcean'' uses food for mostly healing, medicine also makes its way into the game as healing items but they are more like to be antidotes and cures.
* Averted and played straight in later ''[[Franchise/TalesSeries Tales]]'' games. Cooking food heals a portion of HP and TP depending on the dish and the skill of the cook, but this can only be done outside of battle, and once you've cooked, you can't do it again until you've been through a fight or slept ("Come on, we just ate!").
** It is played straight in that you can cook in between [[spoiler: Mithos and then his Robot]] in ''[[VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia Symphonia]]'' for instant effects. Same can be done with [[spoiler: [[VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia Duke]]]] , [[spoiler: [[VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia Duke]]]], and [[spoiler: [[VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia Radiant Winged One]]]]. However, ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphoniaDawnOfTheNewWorld'' does have an aversion- where cooking is now for the {{Mons}} (Cooking increases their stats) and can only be done once for every time they level up.

* [[TheWitcher Witchers]] are explicitly noted as having an odd metabolism.

* In ''VideoGame/MonkeyHero'' Slices of peach pie restore 8 peaches of health. Mushrooms fully restore your health and can double as an AutoRevive

* Also averted in ''RuneFactory: A Fantasy HarvestMoon'' - food effectiveness ranges from near-nothing to some HP/RP regeneration, awkward stat changes (Cheesecake boosts your intelligence!) and elemental attacks and resistance...but eating a slice of Toast will make you too full to eat anything else for half an hour. (This is dependent on the type of food, of course - a whole Seafood Pizza pushes the limit to three and a half hours.)

** Ordinary ''HarvestMoon'' games use food to "heal" you as well. However, since your [[CallAHitPointASmeerp "HP" is actually fatigue and stamina]], it makes a bit more sense that food "heals" you.

* For any players for ''SaintsRow'', do you get hungry for some Freckle Bitch's? Where a bite of a burger restores you from near death.

* In ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto: [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas San Andreas]]'', CJ can heal by eating meals at fast-food restaurants or by purchasing snacks. Ingesting lots of food will fatten him up much faster than should be possible (eating too much at one time will make him puke though, keeping the health, but losing the fat that would have been gained), or conversely that exercising will make him lose body fat and gain muscle ridiculously quickly, could also be taken as evidence of a most unusual metabolism. Niko in ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV GTA IV]]'' can also regain health by eating food, but he does not get fatter.

* Prior to beta 1.8, ''{{Minecraft}}'' treated all food items this way. It has since been replaced with RegeneratingHealth fueled by a full stomach.

[[folder:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]

** Explained as he's a parasite-type innocence user, technically, he's eating for two, Krory's also been alluded to having this appetite when he's not [[{{Ourvampiresaredifferent}} snacking on Akuma blood.]]

* [[BigEater Luffy]] from ''OnePiece'' seems to operate on this system, adhering to all four points: not only is he seemingly capable of eating nearly anything he finds with no apparent ill effects, he has a preference for meat of any kind, which seems to recover more health and energy. At one point he eats a couple of chicken legs after being wounded, and it is pointed out that he's doing this in order to recover from some of the damage in a pinch. Also, he can eat to the point of becoming a giant ball (being made of rubber may help that part) and digest everything in seconds, returning to his slim appearence.
** Also, Brooke can heal rather quickly by drinking milk. Granted, he is a skeleton, and only needs calcium to heal, but he still heals way too fast.[[hottip:* :Interestingly, the fridge logic of him drinking anything at all is somewhat averted, as his powers not only include coming back from the dead (once), but also the ability to eat, drink, see, think, and, yes, poop without any organs.]]

[[folder: Comic Books]]

[[folder: Fan Works]]

* ''{{GURPS}}'' contains bioengineered ultra-tech pills that rapidly heal injuries and even radiation damage by giving you HyperactiveMetabolism for a short time.