Im happy to know you enjoy the game!! Thanks for playing.
Im sorry to hear that you lost your progress. Before restarting your computer, did you use the Log out button on the top right? That is currently the only way to save your character. If you just close the browser the progress isnt saved. This is an oversight of from me.
I will make sure that next version auto-saves once a minute (at least!) so this wont happen at this scale.
About the food. The grayed out images is only a small hint that it is food slots. Carrot doesnt only go on carrot. You can eat any food in any order.
Currently the food only increase "HP5" stat by 1. This is HP5 and MP5 is an old term from World of Warcraft which i took which basically means how much health and mana you regenerate every 5 seconds. You have a constant HP5 of 1. With two Carrot and Meat you should have HP5 of 3. If you also use Club1, you should have HP5 of 4.
You can see when next health regen tick comes by looking at the tiny bar going up at your health.
I do have a discord but its kind of private with only myself on it right now. I will make it public soon.