Hunger mechanics in one paragraph
The hunger bar drains from sprinting, jumping and regenerating health. When it is full (or at least 18/20), you regenerate health; below 6 you cannot sprint at all. What matters is not the number of drumsticks a food restores but its saturation — the hidden secondary bar. Cooked meats and certain crops have high saturation, so they last far longer per item.
The staples worth farming
Steak and cooked porkchop (8 hunger, high saturation) are the travel standard — breed cows or pigs in a fenced pen with their bait (wheat, carrots). Bread from a wheat field is the early staple (3 hunger but cheap and stackable). Golden carrots are the saturation king for late game. Sweet berries are abundant but inefficient; keep them for trading with villagers.
The two-hour setup that feeds forever
A 9×9 tilled field with a water channel in the middle grows wheat, carrots and potatoes automatically with a single water block at the center. Add a composter to turn spare seeds into bonemeal, and a fenced pen of two cows and two pigs with a auto-breeding habit. Cook everything in a furnace array or a smoker — smokers cook food twice as fast.
