[quote=@Ashifili]
Man, if you think about it, American Beer is such a value consumable. If all food items were like that, I could totally see people playing Elder Tale like they do with Monster Hunter. Eat a shit ton of food that gives you stat bonuses, and then go out and solo a boss.

Oh yeah, I'm curious. Is the stats thing just there for fluff, in the end? Doesn't seem like there's any rulings at all about it, outside of not putting all your stats into S.
[/quote]

It's there for a mix of fluff and other things. It's mostly to dictate how much damage you would take from enemies or how much damage you deal. It'll also affect how much items get dropped, etc. There's no rulings because it's just a "Does it make sense?" kinda thing.