Hello Everyone,

I did some number crunching on my VR14 Sorc. He is spec'ed to make Max and Regen Magicka explode by huge %'s. This was a pain in my butt btw, so someone better pass this on to the ZOS because I have quantified the amount to adjust drinks by.

Please note:
This has nothing to do with shield stackers and other problematic regen systems or equipment bonus being too high on Regens. This is ONLY in relation to making Drinks on par with Food.

Assumed:
We are using my High Elf Sorc wearing light armor, gear does NOT change between the 2 tries... these are real numbers.
2000 magicka per average spell
Using VR5 Food&Drink both Green quality (maximizes the Magicka stats)
Base Regen Stat is 1274 or (637 Magicka per second)
21000 Magicka base *seriously it really is 21000 even, lucky us.

Drinks:
+187 becomes +271 bonus Regen For green, assuming racials, gear, and passives. Yeah, my % bonus to MR is sick isn't it!
NewMagicka Regen = 1544 or 772/sec
21000 Max Magicka/ 2000 per attack
10.5 worth of seconds (or spells)
D = 10.5

Food:
+3720 becomes +4315 Max Magicka after green food, and assuming all my racials, gear, and passives.
25315 Max Magicka/ 2000 per attack
12.5 worth of Seconds (or spells)
F=12.5 Seconds
{12.3% Damage increase from raised stats. Yes I got this from my actual skills, 3 of the damaging ones: Crushing Shock, Volcanic Rune, Crystal Shards.}

So now we got the numbers... let's do some math!

Drinks
D = 10.5 initial seconds
772/sec * 10.5 = 8106
8106/2000 = 4.053 seconds more = Y
4.053 * 772 = 3128.916
3128.916/2000 = 1.56 Seconds more = X
X+Y+D = 16.11 Seconds O' Fun

*No damage increase.


Food
F = 12.5 initial seconds
637/sec * 12.5 = 7962.5
7962.5/2000 = 3.98 seconds more = Y
3.98 * 637= 2536
2536/2000 = 1.26 Seconds more = X
X+Y+F = 17.74 Seconds O' Fun

{*Effective food seconds if we used Drink's DPS}
1.123*(X+Y+F) = 19.922



Beyond the initial run
You can extend the time with other resource management options and at first glance you could make drinks work... but since skills that are used for resource management scale with max associated stat.... food still wins.


Food vs. Drink and elemental drain for the whole family
Assumed:
Max Magicka modifies regen on elemental drain *proven, it actually does.
We assume that elemental drain would be cast before our previous timers so we can use those numbers.
Average magicka is still 2000 per skill cast.

Buffed Elemental Drain regen = 345
Base regen on elemental = 287

Formula would be:
Seconds*Elem Drain Regen = Total Elem Drain return over time

Drink = 16.11 * 287 = 4623.57 Magicka
or
Food = 17.74 * 345 = 6120.3 Magicka

Now let's put that in seconds:
Drink
(4623.57/2000) + 16.11 = 18.4 Seconds

Food
(6120.3/2000) + 17.74 = 20.8 Seconds

BUT WAIT! We are doing a DPS weave... so we multiple Food by our old friend 1.123 which means for DPS: 1 Food Second is actually 1.123 equivalent seconds in Drink damage.

So food bring the effective seconds for DPS
20 * 1.123 = 23.4 Drink seconds


Conclusion:
So we have our 2 final sets of Calculations, these will show us how much we need to up drink buffs:
No ED: Food seconds/ Drink Seconds
19.92/16.11 = (1.24 or 124%)

ED: Food seconds/ Drink Seconds
23.4/18.4 = (1.27 or 127%)

Too long did not read: Otherwise known as I hate you
I would suggest to ZOS an increase of around 27% to all drink Buffs or just make the blasted things stack.

EDIT:Numbers you don't see because I'm tired: it would take around 79 seconds for the current Drink buffs to catch up to the Food buffs but only assuming you are not using elemental drain or any other Max Magicka based resource management skills

EDIT: Referencing a thread on the don't make them stack stance.
http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/150423/zos-dont-make-food-and-drink-stackable-and-why/p1