Golden Apple

The golden apple is a rare food item. They are moderately difficult to obtain, but are one of the most beneficial food items. They can be crafted, and are very rarely (~0.66% chance) found in dungeons and strongholds.

Eating a golden apple not only restores, but grants Regeneration II for 5 seconds and Absorption for 2 minutes. Unlike other food items, golden apples can be eaten even when the player is full, which will still activate the effects.

Golden apples are required in order to cure zombie villagers. While under the effects of Weakness, zombie villagers can be fed a golden apple. After roughly 3 minutes they will revert to ordinary villagers.

Golden apples can be used in the taming and breeding of horses, though this is inefficient since they require 9 times more gold than golden carrots.

Enchanted golden apples are similar to the original golden apple, but are much more powerful and much more expensive to craft. They can only be obtained through crafting. Enchanted golden apples grant Regeneration V for 30 seconds, Absorption for 2 minutes, and both Resistance I and Fire Resistance I for 5 minutes. Enchanted Golden Apples shine purple, much like other enchanted items. They can be used for taming and breeding horses but cannot be used to cure zombie villagers.

Advantages

 * They are the only food items that cause temporary constant health regeneration that is not dependent on the player's hunger. This is indicated by the line of hearts bobbing up and down in a wave pattern, with each full wave restoring half a heart.
 * Compared with potions of regeneration, golden apples are available for fighting monsters before the player is able to brew or even go to the Nether in singleplayer (brewing requires blaze rods and nether wart, both found only in the Nether). In particular, the enchanted version provides Fire Resistance, which is handy for collecting one's first few blaze rods.
 * Although standard apples have a low chance of dropping from oak leaves (0.5% per leaf block), tree farming can produce a good supply of them. Trading with villagers can get also them in quantity.
 * Golden apples can be used to create a village by curing zombie villagers. If Generated Structures are turned off, this is the only way to have villagers and trade with them.

Disadvanatages

 * Although they are in a sense renewable, golden apples are extremely expensive to craft. A single enchanted golden apple requires exactly 72 gold ingots (a staggering 648 gold nuggets), along with an apple.
 * It takes time to eat, and the basic golden apple then takes 5 seconds to heal health points. Splash potions are a good alternative, if you have brewing capability.

Video
Note: This video is outdated; since, golden apples now require gold ingots and blocks of gold instead of golden nuggets and gold ingots

Trivia

 * An enchanted golden apple requires 72 golden ingots to craft; a normal golden apple requires 8 golden ingots to craft.
 * Due to this item being able to heal the player a large amount, they are commonly found as rewards in custom adventure maps.
 * As a result of its potency and usefulness in PVP, enchanted golden apples are sometimes called "god apples".
 * Some servers sometimes use enchanted golden apples as a prize, or a rare item.
 * Enchanted golden apples provide the highest level potion effect thus far: Regeneration V.
 * Golden apples are the only foods that can still be eaten when the player's hunger bar is full.
 * A total of health points can be restored by eating an enchanted golden apple. The healing speed is enough to endure nearly any damage from mobs except the Void.
 * While the 1.4 update removed the dark borders from many food item sprites, strangely, the golden apple remains unchanged.