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Does Jewish tradition understand that Daniel's vegetarian diet in chapter 1, assumedly due to not having a source of clean meat, was healthy and hence thats why he looked good following this diet?
I recently discovered that there is an alternative view: Daniel's health is essentially a demonstration of a miracle, that they were able to look good in spite of their restricted diet.
Ibn Ezra is of the opinion that it was the type of food they were eating that positively affected their appearance. He goes into detail inferring what exactly the food was, which would have the effect of filling one up (and reddening one's face?), but he concludes that any food one is eating out of desire/preference will be more likely to have these effects than a food one is not so into.
However, this cannot be said to represent the monolithic view on this topic. Ibn Ezra himself, in the same comment, cites the "ga'on", who believed their sustained healthy appearance was a miracle.
