HEALTHFUL

healthful

(adjective) conducive to good health of body or mind; “a healthful climate”; “a healthful environment”; “healthful nutrition”; “healthful sleep”; “Dickens’s relatively healthful exuberance”

sanitary, healthful

(adjective) free from filth and pathogens; “sanitary conditions for preparing food”; “a sanitary washroom”

Source: WordNet® 3.1

Etymology

Adjective

healthful (comparative healthfuller or more healthful, superlative most healthful)

Beneficial to bodily health.

Conducive to moral or spiritual prosperity; salutary.

Synonyms

• healthy

• salubrious

• salutary

• wholesome

Usage notes

When a clearer distinction is intended, healthy is used to describe the state of the object, and healthful describes its ability to impart health to the recipient. Vegetables in good condition are both healthy (i.e, not rotten or diseased) and healthful (i.e, they improve the eaters' health, compared to eating junk food). By contrast, a poisonous plant can be healthy, but it is not healthful to eat of.

Source: Wiktionary

Health"ful, a.

1. Full of health; free from illness or disease; well; whole; sound; healthy; as, a healthful body or mind; a healthful plant.

2. Serving to promote health of body or mind; wholesome; salubrious; salutary; as, a healthful air, diet. The healthful Spirit of thy grace. Book of Common Prayer.

3. Indicating, characterized by, or resulting from, health or soundness; as, a healthful condition. A mind . . . healthful and so well-proportioned. Macaulay.

4. Well-disposed; favorable. [R.] Gave healthful welcome to their shipwrecked guests. Shak.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition