Unfortunately all of your deaths are your fault, you cannot blame the new food system for that as my group has played all the way through this update with no issues to speak of. The deaths we have had are because we got too greedy, too lazy or just unfortunately got outnumbered or outplayed.

Using berries and cooked meat is silly for the swamp, you should have access to tin to make a cauldron long before you enter the swamp and with that you can start cooking better food. Queens Jam (Raspberries, Blueberries), Boar Jerky (Boar meat, Honey), Carrot Soup (Carrot, Mushroom). You should have access to these things from your time in the Black Forest.

Troll armour is fine and your shield is fine but food actively dictates how able you are to block damage, the more HP you have the more damage your shield will block for you. You also need to time the block to get a parry (especially with a buckler, it does basically nothing otherwise) which you must have missed because even with no food you can parry a draugr but you will stagger and be open to a killing blow.

Everything points to you not being prepared and going into a very dangerous zone in the game only to die and then come here to moan about it, get the basics down and the game is fine.