Minecraft wiki entry for The_second_day, associated text: The biggest drain on hunger is healing damage, but for quite some time (until you get golden apples and potions), this is the only way to heal damage! In Java Edition You heal faster when your hunger bar is full and have some extra saturation, and if your hunger bar is below 18 ( × 9), you cannot heal at all. Each point of damage healed costs the equivalent of 1.5 () hunger, or 3⁄4 of a shank.