I like the whole concept of Humanity in Dark Souls. You can carry them around, use them to turn yourself a little bit less unsightly, zombified undead and you can even influence drop rates for looting/farming sprees if you so wish... oh, and you can heal yourself with them even when you run out of the standard Estus health recovery potion.
Best all-around health-restoring item, methinks.
From the pure aesthetics I've always been partial to the various random food items in, say, the classic Capcom games. Chicken, apples, meat on the bone, whole TV dinners - brilliant stuff.