Food

Food is used in Minecraft to restore health. Some types of food (eggs, milk, sugar, wheat, and mushrooms) are used as ingredients to make food that can be consumed, but cannot be eaten on their own. Food is eaten by holding down the button to eat until the item has vanished. Cake must be placed before it can be eaten, but after that is consumed by right-clicking it.

Food ingredients and items with the exception of Milk and Mushroom Stew are stackable.

Food is an even more vital source now than in previous versions, due to the Hunger Bar being added in 1.8.

Ingredients
The following items cannot be used to heal but may be crafted to make some of the food items above.

Efficiency (Healing)
Foods do stack in your inventory, but it pays to choose what edibles you carry to the maximum benefit out of your resources and time - especially when out exploring or mining, when storage space can get limited.

The healing efficiency (HE) value of a particular food item in this table is measured in hearts per inventory space:

HE value = Total number of hearts (healed by the food) divided by total number of inventory spaces needed (to store the components)
 * Prepared means the HE was calculated based on the inventory space needed to carry the already cooked/crafted food.
 * Unprepared means the HE was calculated based on the minimum inventory space needed to carry the uncrafted/uncooked components of the food (including the Workbench or Furnace) that yielded the ideal (most) hearts per space.
 * Inventory specifies the number of spaces needed to carry the amount of uncrafted/uncooked components to yield the ideal Unprepared HE value.
 * Unprepared (Max) means the HE was calculated based on using the entire inventory space to carry the uncrafted/uncooked food components (including the Workbench or Furnace). Not recommended unless one specializes in virtual catering or holds regular celebratory feasts.

WARNING: This table is using the hearts for efficiency, and is no longer accurate.

For further in-depth explanation of the values, please see Food/HE_Calculations.