Originally posted by Flamekeeper:

You eat health foods for more health, you eat stam foods for blocking etc etc, obviously you will need to eat both to get the right balance

You don't "need" to eat both, using whatever you have at hand isn't going to make you particularly weak, just not specialized. The tweaks allow players to refine their playstyle by modifying their stats and changing what food items they want to farm for. Don't like farming crops? Skip crop foods. Want more hp? Go hunting.

Keep in mind we already have this exact system with early/midgame foods having some great diversity and choices, though the choices get limited around the time you hit plains where it's all lox pies, blood pudding, and fish tacos, occasionally with serpent stew in place of one of those if you can afford it.