History Main / HyperactiveMetabolism

PowerUpFood is the trope when food provides benefits instead of (or in addition to) restoring health.

* In the ''Manga/UshioAndTora'' game for the UsefulNotes/SuperFamicom, Ushio regains health by eating rice balls, and Tora by eating [[TrademarkFavoriteFood hamburgers]].

* ''VideoGame/Ghostbusters1990'' for the UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis has Gyoza available at the item store to refill your health between missions. Peking Duck can be bought and stored in your inventory to heal in the middle of a job.

** ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'': The player characters can buy Sprunk soda cans from machines and candy at convenience stores to eat and regain health, but nothing else. The most you can do is drink while hanging out with a friend. In ''Online'', you can store snacks to eat whenever you please.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons5thEdition'':

** Taken to its logical extreme in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'', where Link can quickly cook and eat dozens of hearty meals in just a few minutes. This gets some GameplayAndStoryIntegration: Zelda's diary notes that Link is a BigEater, and she even started bonding with him in part ThroughHisStomach.

* Several of the healing items in the ''VideoGame/{{Neptunia}}'' series are energy drinks, which actually boost metabolism. A ShowWithinAShow infomercial in [[VideoGame/HyperdimensionNeptuniaVictory the third game]] has Neptune mention one of the high-end ones is so powerful it'll [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome give you the runs and might be addicting]], only to be shoved off stage while Nepgear [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial awkwardly insists there's no side effects at all.]]

* In ''VideoGame/{{OMORI}}'', characters eat various sweets and junk food to heal themselves. Completely averted in the Faraway Town segments, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome where food items barely heal your party members.]] Instead, the player must rely on bandages and first aid kits.

* ''VideoGame/{{Bug}}'' has '''"[[SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound BUUUUUUUUUUUUG JUUUUUUUUUUUUICE]]!!!"''' An energy drink that instantly refills all of Bug's hitpoints as soon as he collects one.

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

%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1527493801078580000
%% Please do not replace or remove without starting a new thread.

%% This page's examples section is sorted alphabetically. It would be lovely if you'd maintain this, thanks.

* The early ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'' games had Pot Roast, which looked much like any other eight-bit piece of meat, heal the hero. Even if you did find the meat in the walls of a cursed castle that looks hundreds of years old.
** Or sconces. There's sconce meat as well as wall meat.
** Later ''Franchise/{{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. ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaPortraitOfRuin Portrait of Ruin]]'' has foods like Beef Jerky, Ground Meat, Grapes, Penne Arrabiata, and Cheesecake.

* The main health items in the game ''VideoGame/DieByTheSword'' are meat legs, breadsticks, and healing herbs, with healing potions the only drink. They all heal the hero instantly, and since the levels are continuous and segue into each other, and he never relieves himself during the game, this is also an example of BottomlessBladder.

* ''VideoGame/GodHand'', being made in the mold of the old-fashioned BeatEmUp, has fruit for all your healing needs. In order of increasing effectiveness, there are cherries, oranges, bananas, and strawberries. In addition, pizza increases your [[LimitBreak God Hand]] meter when purchased from the game's store, smoothies increase your maximum health, and sushi lets you use more attacks in your combo.
** It quenches his thirst and keeps him full in a desert environment, eating chicken legs and meaty foods only serves to make a man thirsty.
** ''VideoGame/MadWorld'', the SpiritualSuccessor to ''VideoGame/GodHand'', lets Jack eat onions for health.

* ''VideoGame/ViewtifulJoe'' replenishes hearts by consuming full cheeseburgers that fall out of floating boxes. "Yummy!"
** There's also bigger value meals that include a double cheeseburger, fries, and a drink. "Mmm! Real meal!"
* Any playable area in the ''VideoGame/{{Yakuza}}'' series will have all manner of restaurants and bars dotted around. If Kiryu or any other playable character is missing some health, stopping in for a drink or a meal ([[BigEater or several]], depending on how much health you've lost) will heal them immediately. Same goes for any food in the inventory, be it take-out from a fast food joint or sandwiches and booze bought from the local convenience store. You can typically earn an upgrade that lets you play this totally straight, too, letting you pack away the entire menu of a restaurant while at full health.

* In ''VideoGame/GodHand'', healing pickups are represented as fruit.

* ''VideoGame/ArmoredWarriors'' has an interesting variation, where finding oil cans, batteries, spanners and wrenches will immediately restore the health of your HumongousMecha, basically turning it into Hyperactive Maintenance

* In NES game ''VideoGame/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.
** And in the Japanese version, it turns out the stamina-raising items were entire bags of high-quality rice. Now picture the heroes eating an entire bag's worth of rice with natto.
* Similarly in ''VideoGame/ScottPilgrimVsTheWorldTheGame'', Scott and company can enter fast-food restaurants for a quick refill of health.

* In the ''VideoGame/{{Yakuza}}'' games, Kiryu (or whoever else you're currently playing as) can restore his health by eating food, which happens instantly, so he can eat a sandwich in the middle of a battle. However, food items are much weaker compared to medicine yet take as much space in your inventory, making them inefficient. It's also possible to sit down in a restaurant and order a proper meal, which gives experience points on top of restoring health.

* Done in a very unusual fashion in the Wii version of ''VideoGame/PunchOut'', where Doc Louis eating a chocolate bar in-between rounds causes ''the player'' to instantly regain stamina. In the boss fight against him in ''Doc Louis' Punch-Out!!'', he can also regain stamina by eating a chocolate bar in the middle of the match (the player can stop him by punching it out of his hand, [[BerserkButton but there]] [[LetsGetDangerous will be consequences.]])
* Food in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' heals very little (1-12%). To offset this, Party Balls sometimes drop a lot of it. [[VideoGame/{{Kirby}} Maxim Tomatoes]] heal 50% damage (100% in the first game).
** Also explicitly (as of ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosForNintendo3DSAndWiiU'', at least) follows Point 3 in the list above: the apple, for instance, does not heal as much as the turkey dinner.
* ''VideoGame/Tekken3'' 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]]."

* In ''VideoGame/{{BioShock|1}}'', there are a number of comestibles that will restore your health and [[ManaMeter EVE]] meters, but only by a very small amount. Eating snacks such as potato chips and cream-filled cakes gives you health, while drinking coffee gives you EVE, and eating a "pep bar" gives you a smidgen each of health and EVE. Meanwhile, smoking cigarettes will give you a bit of EVE at the cost of some health, while drinking alcohol will give you a bit of health at the cost of some EVE. The gene tonic Extra Nutrition will give you more health from consumables and Booze Hound causes you to gain EVE instead of losing it when drinking booze.
** There is, however, a mild disincentive to drinking alcohol for health--drink too much in too short a time and the corners of the screen will become fuzzy and your movements will become drunken wobbles for a minute or two.
** ''VideoGame/BioShock2'' 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.
** ''VideoGame/BioshockInfinite'' expands eating even more as you no longer hold medkits anymore. Food is far easier to find, even in illogical places such as [[GoodiesInTheToilets toilets]] and trash cans. It is to such an extent that one of the major jokes around Infinite is casting Booker as an extreme glutton just eating everything and anything he can get his hands on. [[spoiler:Which, if [[TheMultiverse the ending]] is any indication, might actually be ''canon'' in some way!]]
-->''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXv4vsbIMts I have to eat this to get my health up, or I'm going to die!]]''

* In ''VideoGame/DukeNukem3D'', Duke could regain lost health not only from obvious health power-ups like first aid kits but could also regain some by urinating into toilets (up to 10%) or by taking drinks from sources of water, which would give back health at a rate of 1% per sip. You could even combine these two by smashing the toilet after you were done with it. If you were really desperate and had lots of time, you could get to 100% health this way even if you were down to your last [[HitPoints hit point]].

* The ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriors'' series uses meat and steamed buns as its healing foods of choice. Coincidentally, Zhuge Liang (a playable character) is traditionally credited with inventing the ''mantou,'' a plain steamed bun with no filling (these days; it may have had meat originally).
** In sister series ''VideoGame/SamuraiWarriors'', it's dango (small rice flour balls on a skewer) and nigiri (rice shaped in a triangle and half-wrapped with a thin sheet of pressed seaweed).
** And in both, [[BoozeBasedBuff alcohol]] fills your LimitBreak meter.
*** Meanwhile, for the food part of it, ''VideoGame/WarriorsOrochi'' instead uses peaches.
** ''VideoGame/FistOfTheNorthStarKensRage'', by the same producers, features things such as bread and meat for healing, and water to restore the necessary energy meter for the series' signature moves.

* ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes'' has slices and entire pixelated pizzas to heal you through the level, and Travis' minifridge seems to offer a full refill of health, even if you never need it outside of missions.
** Also included in ''VideoGame/TravisStrikesAgainNoMoreHeroes'', where you can find a couple of ramen stalls on each level, where your character can calmly sit to eat. This not only refills your health, but also your special attack meter, and even the battery of your weapon, somehow. You can then find a ''very'' detailed review of each ramen in Travis' blog after getting it.

* ''Videogame/SengokuBasara'', as Capcom's version of ''Samurai Warriors'', also uses onigiri and sake as healing items. Crates of rice fill both the health and the Basara gauges.

* ''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. 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 ''VideoGame/{{Thelastio}}'', healing is done through either eating apples (which restore 30 HP), or steaks (which restore the entire life bar, but take twice as long to consume, and the player must stand still during that entire time.)
* ''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.
** Eating certain food affects your weight, either gaining or losing depending on the food.

* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', eating food restores health, while drinking various liquids restores {{mana}}. A few restore both or grant other effects like temporary stat bonuses or a chance to burp flame in combat. Eating food and drinking liquids takes place over time and requires your character to sit and do nothing but eat and drink while drinking potions is an instant effect with an animation. Note that healing magic also exists in the game, and classes without mana obviously have no need to drink; thus the need for these items varies depending on your character.

** Similar to the ''Bioshock'' example above, drinking too much alcohol in too short a time gets you drunk. How quickly you get drunk depends on the level of alcohol in the drink. After getting drunk, your screen becomes blurry, your character wobbles and walks in the wrong direction, and everything you type into the chat log sounds like slurred speech... from a drunk. And don't even try to ''fly'' while drunk...

* In ''VideoGame/DragonsWake'' the player character is a young dragon that eats the bodies of his enemies to heal his wounds - even in the middle of combat.
* The early DOS ''VideoGame/DukeNukem'' games had cola as a health item, along with a turkey leg. Shooting it would upgrade it to a full turkey. ''Duke Nukem 2'' had an interesting spin, as one health powerup was a live chicken that moved fairly quickly. If you were quick enough to shoot it with your laser, it would roast the bird, and the resulting meal would give you double the health the regular chicken did. %% Please refer to the FPS section for the newer games in the series.

* ''VideoGame/EccoTheDolphin'' had fish for this purpose, [[StockAnimalDiet rather naturally]].
* In the SNES platformer ''VideoGame/EVOSearchForEden'', food didn't just heal you, it literally [[HollywoodEvolution allowed you to evolve into new forms]].

* In the beginning, ''Franchise/{{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]]!

* ''VideoGame/TheLionKing'': Simba eats beetles, in a nice nod to Timon and Pumbaa's diet in the movie. [[PoisonMushroom Some are deadly]], though.

* Although the game ''VideoGame/{{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 that contributes to well-being.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'', you can use Pyrokinesis to roast squirrels, which will heal you slightly when eaten. This is removed in [[VideoGame/Psychonauts2 the sequel]], but in exchange, you can now purchase Psi Pops: lollipops that restore your mental energy (i.e. health) when used.

* ''VideoGame/SonicUnleashed'' has the player buying food from vendors around the world and feeding them to either Sonic or Chip. It's a little off the trope as Sonic does not gain health from doing so (Day stages operate under traditional Sonic logic of holding onto rings to survive, while the Werehog has a more conventional health bar refilled by other means), but instead gives him experience points to go towards upgrading the abilities of both forms. The trope kicks in when it becomes clear there is no limit, and Sonic can just scarf down a chili dog, some jelly, two apples, a bowl of elasticated ice cream, a massive steak, a ''mega-massive'' Hero Sandwich, and much more besides, without issue. Must be all that running. Chip can also be fed these food items without penalty, for a little description of how they taste as well as making him like Sonic more - and at least in his case, his BigEater status is justified, [[spoiler:seeing as he's the Light Gaia and all]].
** Parodied in the Sonic fan game ''VideoGame/Sonic2XL'', where all the golden rings in each stage are replaced by fried onion rings. Sonic digests them instantly--but with every five rings he eats, [[BalloonBelly he gains weight and loses mobility]]. If Sonic gets fat enough, he's completely immobilized and soon dies of a heart attack.

* ''VideoGame/ToeJamAndEarl'' 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.
* ''VideoGame/WarioLand'' series. Garlic is apparently the heal-all substance for Wario, even when your source of garlic is roughly equivalent to 'beat up enemy by shaking them to make them drop a three-foot by three-foot clove of garlic that heals instantly'. Garlic is more or less the EvilCounterpart to Mushrooms, it seems.

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

* All ''VideoGame/{{Boktai}}'':
** All entries had food as healing items. Starting with Zoktai (''Boktai 2''), all food items had a freshness meter that wears down over time. At least in the early going, fruits and meat had a strong effect but ran the risk of growing stale (which could still be consumed, but had a much weaker effect AND made you sick [[InterfaceScrew messing up the screen whenever you moved]]), whereas potions had a lesser effect but never went bad.
** ''Lunar Knights'' expounded on this further by allowing you to "process" items based on the local weather. Carrying meat around on a hot, low-humidity day caused it to dry out, for example, which not only made it more effective but also prevented it from going bad in this new state. Likewise, soda could freeze into popsicles when the temperature went sub-zero. Chocolate also melts when enough time passes, and as it does so, it combines with whatever item you have in the inventory slot below it: most items only end up producing chocolate-covered versions of the original item which would never go bad (though all chocolate sealed items had the same appearance so you would have to remember what item was in what chocolate blob), but some of them become a lot more effective this way, such as fruit and milk (the latter turning into milk chocolate).
* Creator/SquareEnix's iPhone RPG ''VideoGame/ChaosRings'' 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.

* In the Nintendo DS RPG ''VideoGame/{{Contact}}'', eating food heals wounds somehow, but there's also a meter that tells how full your character's stomach is -- eat too much too quickly and you won't have room for anything else for a while. This even roughly corresponds to the type of food you've eaten; a whole roast chicken will take a lot longer to digest than a cup of coffee. Moreover, certain foods will give status bonuses while they're still being digested: meats will give strength and stamina bonuses, fish will give intelligence bonuses, and soda gives you a speed bonus.

* ''VideoGame/DeusEx'':
** The game includes soy food, soda cans, candy bars, and at least three kinds of alcohol as various small but noticeable health restoration, on top of actual medical equipment. It's explained that Denton's nanites process the food instantly. A bottle of wine or vial of illegal drugs (that do not increase your health), for instance, would have your targeting reticule wavering in a circle for about ten seconds, with more amplifying the effect.
** You can also apparently repair four crippled appendages, a couple gunshot wounds to the head, and a severe chest wound by drinking from a water fountain. Or you could, if the water fountains didn't run out of water after a few seconds.
** The sequel ''Invisible War'' does much the same, but homogenizes all the forms of food into one type of item regardless of what it looks like.
** In ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution'' Adam gains back not health, but energy by eating protein bars specifically designed to be ultra-efficient when consumed by augmented humans. There is also alcohol, which increases his health above the normal maximum of 100, up to 200, along with painkillers - as such, this could be considered as due to alcohol's anaesthetic effect, but it also works just as well for healing from near-death as boosting it above 100.

* Food is the sole variety of healing item in ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994''. 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, ''VideoGame/EarthBoundBeginnings'' 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.
** And while we're on the topic, Ness and friends are perfectly fine with eating food they find in garbage cans.
** The character Poo recovers drastically less HP when eating "western" foods compared to Ness, Paula, and Jeff, which is explained as him not being used to the taste. Poo doesn't get a bonus when eating "eastern" foods, though. He's also the only character that can make any real use from bottles of water (which restore PP. Ness and Paula only recover 6 from the bottles, and Jeff has no PP to restore.)
** To top it all off, cups of noodles bring you back from the dead, or at least from being a ghost. (However, regular cups of noodles exist too.)
** ''VideoGame/MOTHER3'' 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. Additionally one of this game's status ailments is nausea, which prevents the afflicted character from healing with food items because they don't feel like eating.

** In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' this trope is played straight as all food now restores health. This is especially true at the beginning of the game as food is easily obtainable for free, while the player likely hasn't accumulated enough stuff to make the food's poor weight-to-healing ratio a [[CriticalEncumbranceFailure problem]]. Because food is eaten instantaneously from the menu screen, many players will do things such as ingesting 30 entire wheels of cheese in the heat of battle.

* In ''VideoGame/FableI'', a player would think nothing of [[http://www.dansdata.com/fable.htm eating a hundred carrots in the middle of a battle]].
* In ''VideoGame/FableII'', food items heal and higher quality foods drop experience, and were generally cheaper than potions, but also affected the hero's look and status. Meats were cheaper and had better benefits but caused the hero to get fat and corrupt, whereas assorted fruits, veggies, and tofu were generally more expensive but kept the hero thin and pure.

* In ''VideoGame/Fallout2'' you get to be fully healed when you consume an omelet in Rose's Bed and Breakfast. Of course, it's not an ordinary omelet - it's made from [[spoiler:Deathclaw eggs]].
** Also available, if only peripherally related, was the chance to poison yourself by attempting to break the record for most "Brahmin fries" consumed. The scene is rather funny, but [[FridgeLogic one would expect a survivor in a post-nuclear wasteland to not be picky about his protein sources]].

*** Previous ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' games humorously point out that the pre-War food you find is suspiciously well preserved. Presumably it is [[IndestructibleEdible practically indestructible]], being absolutely jammed full of preservatives and then irradiated.
*** Nuka-Cola heals twice as much when it's Ice-Cold.
** You can actually get a perk called Fast Metabolism, it halves your poison and RAD resistance stats, but you get twice the health boost from food and medicine.

* In all ''[[VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG Mario]]'' [[VideoGame/PaperMario RPG]] [[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigi games]], food and drink restore health while other types restore FP. Mushrooms are the common item types to use to recover HP while syrups are the go-to for FP restoration. You can even dip mushrooms in syrups to combine their effects! [[FridgeBrilliance Presumably, the restoring factors in items are proteins for HP and sugars for FP]].
* Medicine is used to heal in ''VideoGame/ParasiteEve2'', but refilling MP requires spring water. Water: It will make your mitochondria heal faster!
** Don't forget your delicious [[ProductPlacement Coca-Cola]]. And for some reason, a bag of artificial blood solution is a full restore of both attributes.
* Food serves as weak healing items in ''VideoGame/Persona3'' and ''[[VideoGame/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.
** In ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIV'':
*** There are bars in Tokyo where you can eat some rather questionable foodstuffs that provide a full party heal.
*** The demon meat items like the Expanse Meat restore marginal amounts of HP; you're better off selling them.
* The first ''[[VideoGame/PhantasyStarI Phantasy Star]]'' game uses cola and hamburger as the healing items. This probably didn't work, since every game after that one changed healing items to some sort of sci-fi-themed medicine.
* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}''
** In ''Videogame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'' and beyond, there are various berries with various healing effects (restoring HP, curing paralysis, curing a burn, etc.). They can be used immediately on your Pokémon, or held by them for when they're needed (using a held item in battle does not use up a turn). ''[[VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire Ruby/Sapphire]]'' and beyond adds Berry farming as a mechanic, letting a Trainer with a green thumb save money on healing items by going organic.

* ''VideoGame/SanctuaryRPG'', eating bread fully heals the player for some reason.

* In the amateur game ''VideoGame/SensibleErectionRPG'' the end boss points to the existence of this trope in their world ("How could hamburgers cure gaping shotgun wounds?!") as evidence that they live in a computer game.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Soulbringer}}'', food items (specifically: apples, bread, fish, chicken, and ham) are the earliest healing items. Herbs and mushrooms can occasionally do the same thing, but most often they have other benefits (and if you're not careful, certain types can have debilitating effects). Sadly, potions soon become more cost and weight-effective. It's oddly entertaining to stop a fight to scarf down a whole baked chicken for an instant health boost.
** The game also has alcohol... but the protagonist can't hold his liquor well. After one bottle of wine, your movement becomes wonky. After two bottles of wine or a few mugs of ale (which restore health... two points apiece), you get heartily sick and vomit (losing health).
* ''VideoGame/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.
* 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.

* In the Macintosh RPG ''VideoGame/TaskMaker'', general foods such as Rations, Sack Lunch, or Picnic Basket will only replenish the Food meter, but other foods such as Spinach or a DagwoodSandwich will also restore Health and other stats. Conversely, some areas will have Spoiled Apples which will make the player more hungry. Similarly in ''VideoGame/TheTombOfTheTaskMaker'', generic foods only restore the Food meter, while chocolate bars have minor healing properties and "Bucky's Famous Beef Stew" will replenish all stats; conversely, moldy bread will make the player more hungry. Also, the game has various coffee drinks available which also have minor healing properties and will replenish the rarely-used Thirst meter.

* A ''very'' old example of this is the UsefulNotes/{{Intellivision}} ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' game ''VideoGame/TreasureOfTarmin''. Regaining health required using a rest button which took several units of time and one unit of food, in the form of flour sacks scattered through the dungeon.
* ''VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines'' plays the vampiric variant of this trope straight, but with a twist--while you can suck hostile [=NPCs=] dry with impunity, killing an "innocent" by overfeeding will make you [[SlowlySlippingIntoEvil take a hit to your Humanity]]. (In either event, it's a ''really'' bad idea to let ordinary humans see you feed.)
* ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' uses a variety of foods (ice cream, burgers, donuts, pies, etc.) that restores your HP and can be either bought in shops or found in the field. Certain foods can make certain boss battles ''much'' easier if you use them in those fights.
** {{Justified|Trope}}, since In-Universe monster food is made of magic, which instantly dissolves and heals whoever eats it. The items which make fights easier are typically linked with the boss through its creation; for example, the spider boss is beaten if you hang onto the item made by spiders.
** There is an NPC in the first town who remarks how curious he is about human food and how it differs from monster food; how it spoils, it can't be ingested instantaneously, it takes time to digest, and requires a trip to the bathroom afterward. That said, he's interested to try some.
* Witchers in ''VideoGame/TheWitcher'' are explicitly noted as having an odd metabolism.
** This also goes beyond food to explore point 6 a bit - Witcher's potions (which use [[GargleBlaster fuckoff-strength alcohol]] as a base and go from there) are noted to be lethal to normal people, and even the player can overdose if they drink too many at once.

* In ''VideoGame/ShepherdsCrossing,'' you heal your wounded dogs by giving them meat. If you have herbivorous animals in your hunting party, you can also heal them with grass and seeds.

* The ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' games had you recover health by eating rations up to ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty''. Particularly ridiculous about this is the fact that you can equip rations in your active inventory slot, where they will automatically be used if your health is brought to zero - i.e. Snake can eat food, digest it, and heal a significant amount in the time it takes him to ''die from being shot''. In ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater Snake Eater]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPortableOps Portable Ops]]'' more conventional first aid is used to recover health. Rations and other food are used in an arguably 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 by using long-lasting food such as rations or keeping captured animals alive in cages so their meat doesn't spoil.

* Eating food in the first three ''VideoGame/AloneInTheDark'' games is the central, if not only, way to regain lost health - except that "food" in this case usually translated to "flasks of liquid courage". The [[VideoGgame/AloneInTheDark2 second]] and [[VideoGame/AloneInTheDark3 third]] games were so loose with the liquor from enemy drops and static pickups that protagonist Edward Carnby must go from simple BadassNormal to DrunkenMaster.

* In ''VideoGame/RuleOfRose'' the healing items manifest in the form of various sweets and pies.

* In the third-person shooter ''VideoGame/{{Gun}}'' the only method of health restoration is drinking whiskey which you keep in a side flask that holds a few gulps (each gulp restores you to full). It becomes particularly absurd in hard places where refills are scattered around (or in at least one case where they respawn) and you are left wondering not only how he can still shoot straight, but how come he doesn't have to pee. It is made even better by the comments the enemies make about how you can't hold your liquor.
* The primary healing item in ''VideoGame/{{Rune}}'' is food: Apples, huge legs of meat (up to a couple feet long!), tankards of mead, even live lizards. Ragnar eats them quite enthusiastically too, bolting down all of it seemingly in a single mouthful and tossing whatever's left to the ground (especially biting the heads off lizards Ozzy-style).
** Don't even talk about that if you manage to lose an arm, eat a leg of meat, and it grows back instantly!

* The vast majority of the healing items in the ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea}}'' series are food, usually sweets of some sort. Among them, there are some oddities like ''barbecue sauce'' as an MP restorative.

* Anything living in ''VideoGame/JawsUnleashed'' can be consumed for health.
* In ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes'', opening your fridge and staring at all the food in it restores all your health. You can also break open purple boxes and eat the pixelated pizza inside them to restore your health. Your bladder is not bottomless, however - you save your game by going to the bathroom. Of course, the fridge is actually useless, as it can only be used during the free-roaming part of the game, a time when Travis cannot be hurt anyways.

* Allen Walker from ''Manga/DGrayMan''. After a long, hard battle, he starts [[BigEater binge eating]]. One can assume that he has an extremely hyperactive metabolism when, even after eating a gigantic pile of food the size of a room, he is seen remaining rail thin. 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.]]
* While perhaps not demonstrating healing capabilities, in the ''Manga/DragonBall'' series, Goku is repeatedly shown to have a bottomless stomach that allows him to consume a positively ridiculous amount of food. In addition, this food completely replenishes his health while not slowing him down in the slightest. In fact, that energy gained by Goku from eating more than his weight in food tends to make the difference between winning and losing a fight.

* In ''Literature/TheFruitOfEvolution'', Rurune the donkey is a similar case to Goku; when she's full, she's a physical ''juggernaut'' capable of SuperStrength, SuperSpeed and [[ElementalPunch magically enhanced kick attacks]]. As she gets hungrier though, and she [[BigEater gets hungry very quickly]], she grows correspondingly weaker. The first major depiction of this trait is in volume 3, chapter 10 of the light novel, where she is at first only able to trot sluggishly along in a race due to being hungry. Chowing down on a Fruit of Evolution, which [[SupernaturallyNutritiousAndDelicious instantly states hunger completely]], imbues her with the ability to immediately catch up to the other racers -- who were halfway around the track at that point -- dodge through a pack of powerful wolf monsters, ''oneshot'' the alpha wolf monster in passing, and then win the race ''effortlessly''.

* Parodied in ''Anime/LupinIIITheCastleOfCagliostro''. Lupin 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.

--> Back in the froom that Wolfenstein was currently in at that time he jumped on a nearby table and the food osmosised into his body and instantly heeld him because that is how he eats.
* In the ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' fic ''Fanfic/CursedBlood'', Izuku's Quirk grants him a very powerful HealingFactor that is powered by his own energy reserves. Due to this, he can quickly digest a lot of food in a short time - at one point, he eats three pizzas in a few minutes without a problem.

* In ''[[Literature/InheritanceCycle Eragon]]'', casting magic consumes body energy/stamina, so a mage who just cast an energy-intensive spell will probably be pretty hungry. On the other hand, unless the energy is replenished from either another being or a gem that was previously filled with energy, it requires rest to regain.
* {{Downplayed|Trope}} 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]].

* {{Justified|Trope}} 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.

* The Creator/PiersAnthony ''Literature/{{Xanth}}'' novel ''Crewel Lie'' features Jordan the Barbarian, whose magic talent is a HealingFactor that requires large amounts of food to work. [[spoiler: To the extent that when the scattered bits of his skeletonized corpse are brought together at the end of the book, he has to have bread crammed into him to regenerate.]]

* ''TabletopGame/{{Bang}}'', a Western-themed card game, has a "Beer" card that heals a player after they've been shot.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowhunters}}'', one of the white cards is a chocolate bar, which heals [[TheEveryman Allie]], [[ChurchMilitant Emi]], and [[VoluntaryShapeshifting The Unknown]] to full if they draw it and are revealed (or choose to reveal themselves).

* ''Webcomic/AlienDice'': Played straight; however, the "food" is not exactly organic material, and has odd and often medical properties.

* On the forum game ''Apocalypse Metropolis,'' all players only have four slots of health, which meant getting shot was equal to getting punched. To heal these wounds, eating food restored a slot, even if it was a sandwich or soda. Actual healing items would often do more than one slot at least. On a similar note, splitting up food (like drinking half of a soda so someone else can have a half) decreased the chances of healing.

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

* The Western-themed card game ''Bang!'' has a "Beer" card that heals a player after they've been shot.
* In ''TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost'', the Contract Clause "Gluttonous Feast of Health" allows this. It works especially well if your character has access to particularly hearty, abundant fare, eats for at least three hours, or better yet both.

* Trollbloods in the ''TabletopGame/IronKingdoms'' will eat nearly anything, from rocks and oil to humans and other Trollkin. This fuels their extremely rapid regeneration. Some regenerate so quickly that hands and legs that are hacked off will grow into a separate miniature Trollkin.

* As discussed under Literature, ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheForsaken'' makes it explicit that werewolves require higher caloric intake in order to regenerate and shift with ease, meaning that most werewolves will have four meals a day at least.

* ''VideoGame/PrimalCarnage'': Humans can heal themselves with first-aid kits scattered around the map (or dropped by the Commando), but obviously dinosaurs can't use those, so instead heal themselves by feeding on carcasses scattered around the map. Dinosaurs with biting attacks will also heal a small amount when they bite a human player (implying the dinosaurs are ripping chunks out of them), while [[PlayAsABoss Tyrants]] replenish a significant portion of their health after eating a human.

* ''VideoGame/Prey2017'': Food and water from drinking fountains or taps restores a small amount of health, some restore psi points.

* ''VideoGame/RedneckRampage'' has pork rinds, beer, whiskey, moon pies (Or Cow Pies depending on which version of the game you've gotten), moonshine, and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goo_Goo_Cluster GooGoo Clusters]]. What stands out though is that both snack foods and booze have a meter on their own. [[BoozeBasedBuff Beer and Whiskey]] reduces enemy damage but [[IntoxicationEnsues drinking too much makes the player harder to control and blurs the screen before passing out.]] Eating snack foods (Only Cow/Moon pies can be carried) reduces the alcohol meter but increases the gut meter. When the gut meter gets too full, the player [[{{Gasshole}} becomes flatulent, alerting the enemy of the player's presence.]]

* In Creator/DeanKoontz's ''Mr. Murder'', 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.

Also known as Health Food. See also HealingPotion. When food instead recovers magic the trope is CastFromCalories. Often overlaps with GameGourmet, when there is a wide variety of food for you to eat. Contrast WizardNeedsFoodBadly, where the food is needed simply to prevent starvation, and EdibleCollectible, where it's just for meeting collection objectives or ScoringPoints. When a good ''rest'' restores health, it's RestingRecovery or TraumaInn. Invokes InappropriateHunger.

* In ''VideoGame/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'', slices of [[TrademarkFavoriteFood pizza]] restore some of a turtle's health, and whole pizzas provide full recovery.

-->'''Dipper:''' Well, we don't have any traditional power-ups; [[Franchise/{{Castlevania}} turkey legs]], [[VideoGame/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles pizza boxes]], or [[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog gold rings]].

* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'': {{Discussed}} by Dipper in "Fight Fighters" as he's looking for power-ups for Rumble in the fridge.