Wheat

Wheat is an item obtained by farming or found in dungeon chests. Seeds for growing wheat are obtained by breaking Tall Grass. Wheat can be crafted into bread, and is a necessary ingredient for cake and cookies.

Harvesting wheat drops 0 to 3 seeds that can be replanted. This makes farming an easy, reliable source of food. The player should keep in mind that jumping on wheat will trample it, causing it to drop before being fully grown. As mobs may also cause this, it is advised to fence off the area as a precaution. Wheat may be used to breed Cows, Chickens, Sheep, Pigs, and Mooshrooms via first herding two of them together and then right clicking them with the wheat to begin "Love Mode." Wheat may be planted in The Nether, but it will grow at a slow pace since water can not be placed to hydrate the Farmland.

Efficiency comparison
Wheat is used to make several different types of food, but the benefit you get from each unit of Wheat varies widely depending on what you use it for. This chart compares the number of hunger points you can expect to regain for each unit of Wheat you use, depending on how you use it.

Based on these statistics, the most effective use of Wheat is to breed cows and chickens. Cows give the greatest return in terms of refilling your hunger meter, and also give you Leather, which you need to make Bookshelves, so it helps you make better enchanted items. Chickens give a moderately good return in terms of hunger, and give you Feathers, which are quite valuable, since you can use them to make large amounts of Arrows for protection against monsters that are difficult to engage in melee combat, like Creepers and Ghasts. Neither one requires other items besides wheat.

Trivia

 * On average, using Wheat to breed animals and eating them restores your hunger meter more than making the same amount of wheat into Bread and eating it. However, this is physically impossible, since it implies that animals digest food with greater than 100% efficiency.