So you have made some tools and built yourself a dirt shack, maybe you even have a door!
Now that you are relatively safe from surprise creepers and or the darkness, your thoughts will naturally turn to stuffing your face.

This pack contains a mod called 'The Spice of Life' which changed the hunger mechanic to be slightly more realistic, with out being overly punishing.
Basically, you can not gorge yourself on bread or steak for your entire life with out perishing from malnutrition.

HOW IT WORKS.

You many have noticed that you have spawned with a 'Food Journal'. This book will keep a record of each food you have eaten.
Every time you eat a food that is already on that list, it will be less nourishing than normal. However the list can only hold so many items, so you can eventually start eating your favourite foods again.
To get around this, all you have to do is eat a variety of different foods.
The journal remembers which foods you have eaten based on their total value in 'shanks'. Each journal will remember 16 shanks worth of food. This means that if you eat very nutritious food, you will be able to eat them more often. Where as, if you eat raw vegetables, you will need to each much more before reaching the limit.

But how do I know which foods are the best?
Generally speaking, the more ingredient the food has (the harder it is to make) the more nutritious it will be.
If you are still unsure how good a food will be, you can simply mouse over the food, either in your inventory or NEI and hold shift.
The tooltip will show the nutrition as a percentage, along with the total number of shanks and saturation that each food will restore.

Holding all that food.
Maybe you want to go for a wander in the wood, or have a nice lively evening out in the nether. You are bound to get hungry while adventuring, or even if you go fishing for long enough.
If you don't feel like filling your inventory with your lunch, you always have the option to make a lunch bag or lunch box.
Despite the name, these container can also hold your breakfast, dinner or a snack.
Place the bag or box in your hot bar and right click with it in hand to open it like an inventory. You can now place a small amount of food in the bag or box for later.
Shift right click to flip the lid open, then hold right click to eat right out of the bag or box. While not as civilized as eating at a table, it certainly saves inventory space while you are out adventuring. Shift right click again to flip the lid closed and return it to inventory mode.

BUT WHERE DO I FIND THIS FOOD?!

Keep your eyes open for gardens on the ground on in the water.
Gardens are like loot bags only for plants.
Punch a garden to break it and reveal the crops within, right click it with an empty hand (or a hand that doesn't have another garden in it) to break the garden and take it with you.
Given how many different kind of crops this pack has, it is usually a good idea to take the garden with you and break it at home when you have some spare chest space.

These crops can then be made in to seeds, which can then be planted to grow more crops. Plants are funny like that.
If you can't find a crop that you need for that ultimate pizza, you have the option to cross breed plants to get new and exciting crops from your old drab crops.
You should also punch as much tall grass as you can. In addition to normal seed both potato and carrot seeds can be found hidden in in amongst the grass. Along with an assortment of other seeds that can be used either for industry or magic.

THERE ARE TOO MANY WEIRD FOODS!

This is where the mod 'cooking for blockheads' comes in to its own.
Making the book from this mod will allow you to see all of the potential foods that you can make from the raw ingredient in your inventory.
This book can eventually be used to make yourself a modular kitchen.
As long as all of the blocks are touching each other, they automatically connect to form a multiblock, all of which can be accessed from the 'cooking table' block.
The complete multiblock (which can have as many fridges as you can afford to build) will allow you to make any recipe with any item stored in the blocks with any of the tools you have added to the rack or oven.
This should make storing and managing your food and hunger much easier with a relatively small investment.
