History Main / HyperactiveMetabolism

* ''VideoGame/{{Flyff}}'' does this too. Food you buy from the NPC can be used every 2 seconds, food that drops and isn't sold once per second, and it indeed heals you. This means you can eat 30 hot dogs or candies, or 60 glasses of orange juice or ice cream cakes (or [[TestosteronePoisoning meat salads]], although they no longer drop as of v18) a minute. Pills can be used every ten seconds. [[UpToEleven And don't even get me started on Remantis Lacotte a food that fully heals your HP and has no cooldown. Whatsoever.]] Balance shmalance!

* In the first two ''VideoGame/SaintsRow'' games, you can instantly restore your health in single player by eating fast food in the middle of combat. In multiplayer, you ''can'' eat food to restore your health, but the healing doesn't happen until you've spent some time in cover without receiving damage.

* In ''VideoGame/SleepingDogs'', edibles completely restore Wei Sheng's health and provide a temporary buff, depending on what was consumed.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' has ''tons'' of food items. Instead of restoring HP or MP, food gives you a temporary boost to some of your stats as well as granting an EXP bonus. While your character does take a few seconds to eat or drink, the effects are immediate. The Culinarian job is a crafter job purely dedicated to cooking food items.

* In the ''VideoGame/EpicBattleFantasy'' series, restoratives and buffing items are all food. Coffee can ''bring people back from the dead''. Characters will occasionally make remarks when you feed them, such as Natz worrying that she'll gain weight.

* ''Manga/FairyTail'':
** While not exactly food to the rest of us, Natsu Dragneel heals completely and gains a burst in strength after eating fire.
** The same goes for Gajeel and Wendy if they eat iron or air respectively (breathing does not count).

* In ''VideoGame/StarFoxAdventures'', Krystal and Fox could eat Dumbledang Pods and Pukpuk eggs (said by the description to not actually be eggs) for health. With each health container divided into four sections, they would restore up to 2 and 4 sections, respectively. The former could be knocked out of trees, and both could be found in containers, as enemy drops, and, if you're really desperate, in the store. But if you're buying them, you're probably really hurting for health.

[[folder:Action Adventure]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Aquaria}}'' not only makes food your primary method of healing, but has food that can give you stronger attacks, let you move faster, or even make you invincible. Medicine, meanwhile, only restores HP or cures status. Of course, they are all created by magic...

* Similarly in ''VideoGame/ScottPilgrimVsTheWorld'', Scott and company can enter fast-food restaurants for a quick refill of health.

* ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}} 3'' for the Playstation 1 had Tekken Force Mode, which was sort of like a ''Final Fight/Streets of Rage'' type sidescroller, but done in 3D. You could eat whole cooked chickens to regain most of your health. The best part of that though was the voice sample that played when you ate one. If you remember the announcer, you remember it. "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEGymfKWXt0 CHICKEN]]."

* Taken to a ridiculous length in ''VideoGame/FarCry2'' - any bottle of water will restore your health completely. Even if you've been hit with a rocket and pummeled by a machine gun, a single bottle of water brings you back to full health just as effectively as a shot of morphine into the arm.

* In the beginning, ''VideoGame/{{Kirby}}'' had Pep Brew (partial healing) and Maxim [[TrademarkFavoriteFood Tomatoes]] (full healing). Later games have various food items that give back varying amounts of health. And gods help you if he eats [[InvincibilityPowerUp Hyper Candy]]!

* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' Super Mushrooms makes Mario become twice as tall (or restores him to normal size) and Fire Flowers let him throw fireballs. In the [=RPG=]s, this is played even more straight though, with mushrooms and other various food items certain chefs can cook healing various amounts of damage, and odd items such as a golden leaf still healing a minute amount of damage.

* ''[[VideoGame/ToeJamAndEarl ToeJam & Earl]]'' has a wide variety of food items that heal you to varying degrees, generally corresponding to the tastiness or richness of the food (e.g. a hot fudge sundae will heal you more than a bowl of cereal). It also features PoisonMushroom-type items that take the form of rotten foods, or a few stereotypically unpleasant "healthy" foods, like cabbage.

* In ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse: VideoGame/AttackTheLight'', Cookie Cats (ice cream sandwiches) and Together Breakfasts are healing items. Given that hit points are 'Harmony' (it represents how well the Gems are 'in sync' with the battle, and how well they can avoid blows that might poof them) and Steven can also heal with encouragement, it's likely that this is because it TastesLikeFriendship.

* Food is the sole variety of healing item in ''VideoGame/EarthBound''. The more expensive foods heal better, and you can buy condiments that increase their effects--if the combination is bad, such as hamburgers and sugar, it doesn't heal much; if it's good, such as fries and ketchup, it is very effective.
** While healing foods already existed in [[RolePlayingGame RPGs]], they were usually treated as more of a [[VideoGame/DragonSlayerIIXanadu depleting resource]], as inherited from {{Western RPG}}s, or [[VideoGame/GloryOfHeracles only healed a small amount]]. Due to its strong focus on their use, the first ''Mother'' is theorized to be the TropeCodifier for food as standard healing items, at least for the genre. Other {{Eastern RPG}}s were [[RPGsEqualCombat streamlining out]] several resource management parts, and so edibles found their niche.

* In later ''VideoGame/{{Tales|Series}}'' 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!")

* The ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' games had you recover health by eating rations up to ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2 MGS2]]''. In ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater MGS3]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPortableOps MGS:Portable Ops]]'' more conventional first aid is used to recover health. Rations and other food is used in an arguable more realistic fashion as a means to recover stamina. Food that is kept too long will go bad. Spoiled or poisonous food will make you sick and deplete your stamina. This can be avoided using long-lasting food such as rations or keeping captured animals alive in cages so their meat doesn't spoil.

* Parodied in the anime film ''Anime/TheCastleOfCagliostro''. Lupin III is severely wounded and seemingly comatose when he suddenly awakens and demands large amounts of food to restore his strength. In the middle of gorging himself on a veritable feast, he suddenly [[GreenAroundTheGills turns green]], stops eating, and whispers that he'll sleep now. Played straight in that he does indeed soon have his strength back.

* Pretty much the main method of increasing one's strength or recovering from wounds in ''Manga/{{Toriko}}'' is to eat something... or someone. Given that the entire series is based on eating the most delicious food in the world, it's not that out of place.
* In ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventure'', Pearl Jam causes any food it touches to cure all of the eater's ailments, albeit in a rather disgusting manner as all harmful matter is instantly expelled from that person's body.

*** The demon meat items like the Expanse Meat restore marginal amounts of HP; you're better off selling them, as they make excellent VendorTrash.

* WesternAnimation/Encanto: Julieta's gift is the ability to make healing foods, to which she uses those abilities to help out the people in the village. Most of the other time, she often heals her accident-prone husband, Agustín, which was pretty much how they ended up getting married prior to the film.

* WesternAnimatio/Encanto: Julieta's gift is the ability to make healing foods, to which she uses those abilities to help out the people in the village. Most of the other time, she often heals her accident-prone husband, Agustín, which was pretty much how they ended up getting married prior to the film.

* Encanto: Julieta's gift is the ability to make healing foods, to which she uses those abilities to help out the people in the village. Most of the other time, she often heals her accident-prone husband, Agustín, which was pretty much how they ended up getting married prior to the film.

*** There are bars in Tokyo where you can eat some [[IAteWhat rather questionable foodstuffs]] that provide a full party heal.

[[quoteright:250:[[Webcomic/RuneHunters https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hyperactivemetabolism.JPG]]]]

-->“Gar,” said Jayna, staring, “what is she? Some sort of inhuman monster?”
-->“No, miss,” replied Gar. “She is a ''hero''.”

* In ''VideoGame/{{Dex}}, Food and the E-Drinks will heal Dex a little when consumed.

* Downplayed in the ''Literature/GreatShip'' universe. Humanity has long become {{Transhuman}} with [[HealingFactor heavily augmented healing]], allowing them to heal from anything as small as a papercut to [[LosingYourHead complete body loss]], should they have enough biomass. If the body doesn't have enough fat and such from food to work from, it'll start cannibalizing lower-priority muscles and bones; characters who have lost arms are noted to be several inches shorter after the arm is regrown. In ''Eater of Bone'', the protagonist's healing is stunted due to malnutrition but goes into overdrive when given a supply of salts and metals [[MetalPoorPlanet rare in the planet's environment]].

* In Dean Koontz's ''Literature/MrMurder'', Alfy has abnormally fast reflexes, extended endurance, and can heal from injuries that would kill an ordinary human several times over. All of this is fueled by a terrifyingly voracious appetite.
* Justified in the ''Literature/{{Percy Jackson|and the Olympians}}'' series with ambrosia and nectar, the food and drink of the gods that is used for healing severely injured demigods. If a demigod consumes too much (or a mortal has any amount whatsoever), the power is too great and will incinerate them from the inside out.

* Downplayed in the ''Literature/GreatShip'' universe. Humanity has long become TransHuman with [[HealingFactor heavily augmented healing]], allowing them to heal from anything as small as a papercut to [[LosingYourHead complete body loss]], should they have enough biomass. If the body doesn't have enough fat and such from food to work from, it'll start cannibalizing lower-priority muscles and bones; characters who have lost arms are noted to be several inches shorter after the arm is regrown. In ''Eater of Bone'', the protagonist's healing is stunted due to malnutrition but goes into overdrive when given a supply of salts and metals [[MetalPoorPlanet rare in the planet's environment]].

* Used in the RPGMechanicsVerse of ''Webcomic/ABeginnersGuideToTheEndOfTheUniverse''. Eating food gives Nutrition points, which can be spent to heal HitPoints or Toxicity (twice as expensive).
* Played straight in ''Webcomic/AlienDice''; however, the 'food' was not exactly organic material, and has odd and often medical properties.
* Lampshaded in ''Webcomic/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.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'', you can use Pyrokinesis to roast squirrels, which will heal slightly when eaten.

** There also exist a number of food items (Lava Cookie, Casteliacones, etc.) that cure a Pokemon of most StandardStatusEffects. Like the above, they're often more cost-effective than the Full Heals in Pokemarts, though they're usually only sold in one place or during certain times.

* 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 his life bar when eaten. A rare example where it makes perfect sense, as Alex's anatomy is nothing like a human's and most likely can directly replace the missing/damaged parts with the absorbed biomass.