Healing foods.

You know how in the early versions of Minecraft you didn't have hunger and food just healed you? Well this isn't that.

This turns natural regen off and gives different foods different amounts of healing. However hunger is still a thing. So healing is limited to the amount of empty hunger bars you have. Once you're full you cant heal anymore.

And since saturation isn't tied to regeneration anymore saturation lasts a long time.

After a few hours of playing, I find that this is actually really fun. It eliminates chip damage and gives you a way to heal, however it still  limits healing.

So if you're clearing a cave and fall like 6 blocks to take a couple hearts of damage, you will be fine. Your saturation will go down and you will heal when you eat.

However if you're fighting a ton of mobs in a cavern, you can only heal as much as you can eat. There is no running away to eat 3 steaks and heal back to full. You'll be stuck at full hunger for a while. There is no boxing yourself in and waiting to heal.

yet late game strategies are the same as vanilla no regen, healing and regeneration potion auto brewers, with the addition of honey farms.

It is a fun compromise to the natural regeneration gamerule!

Class 1 foods heals 2 hearts
cooked beef
cooked chicken
cooked mutton
cooked porkchops
cooked salmon
golden carrots
cake slices

Class 2 foods heals 4 hearts
mushroom stew
beetroot soup
cooked rabbit
honey

Class 3 foods heals 8 hearts
golden apples
rabbit stew

Regen foods heal a few hearts (varies based on item) over 2-3 seconds
baked potatoes
cookies
pumpkin pies
bread
cooked cod