Which is why high end food like stews are so advantageous. I think a lot of people are playing like they did in previous alphas where you could live on low tier foods like baked potato and corn bread. Try to do that in A18 and you will get sick a lot.
^ This. I've not put any points yet into Master Chef, as I found a few recipes that I could manage shortly out of the gate in my first couple of days of exploration. That said, I've been cooking those recipes when I can, and I LOVE the way the mechanic currently works, because
A) Cooked meals (not just random pseudo-ingredients or side dishes like corn bread and baked potatoes) offer a significantly increased benefit from a satiation and stamina-restoration standpoint. As such, one needs to consume fewer of those items (often just a single serving) in order to maintain viability in the broken-down world.
B) This means that my canned food becomes an emergency-only backup plan (or in the case of things like chili-dogs, an ingredient). I've gotten dysentery exactly twice, and I just let it "run its course", so to speak. If I'm dealing with a situation where I am concerned that food poisoning would SERIOUSLY impact my quality of life (I'm away from home, max stamina is WAY low, etc), then I can pop a can of Sham, chili, chicken, lamb or beef...and reap lesser benefits rather than risk food poisoning.
C) This, and the knowledge that further expansion and recipes are coming to the cooking skill, makes me plan--actually
plan--what I do with my foodstuffs. I don't just grab the first thing available to me in order to curb thirst or hunger. I plan out meals I can cook. I plan out which canned items I want to carry along in case of emergencies as I'm exploring. It gives me a reason to
hold on to canned goods, either to use in better recipes, or to have a CYA backup food supply in my inventory as I explore.
This is a new point of challenge. New risk vs. reward. Personally, I enjoy it. Sure, it'd be nice if there were a way to cure it. Maybe TFP could tweak the vitamins to "bolster" digestion so that it speeds up the healing process of dysentery in a similar fashion to the way that antibiotics now work to remove infection...that way it's still not an insta-cure, but you're not wasting vitamins unnecessarily.
Just my two cents. I'm loving A18 on nearly every front.