This is similar to what I wanted. I had a very simple base idea from what you said:

At the core you have base hp and stamina from food. But they could really have fun with hp/sta regen too. High stamina regen is as good if not better than high base stamina. It favors stick and move strategies where you are smart about running/jumping/attacking. It also makes different foods genuinely different.

The problem right now is that 'low tier' foods get flat out obsolete since you're limited to 3 foods at a time. There's not enough variation in effects to justify eating something that might have less hp/sta but make up for it in other ways.