Hunger

Hunger is a game-mechanic that was added in Update 0.12.1. Hunger introduces a new bar which degenerates over time, and needs to be continuously replenished by eating food.

Importance
Hunger Bars are important, due to when the hunger bar is above 9, the player will slowly regenerate health.

Sprinting
When the hunger bar is above 3 points, the player is able to sprint. It allows the player to move faster and jump further distances.

Auto-regenerating.
When the hunger bar is above 8.5 points and the player lose health, he/she will slowly heal every 4 seconds until the player's Health bar is full.

Saturation
Saturation is an aspect of hunger. The hunger bar of the player will only go down when the food saturation reaches zero. Different food items restore different saturation points. The most saturating meal is the Golden Carrot.

Restoration
Any food item can restore hunger when eaten. However, some foods are better than others, so here is the list of each available food's restoration when eaten:

● Apple                                                         2 units

● Potato                                                      Half a unit                                                            

● Baked Potato                                          2 and a half units

● Beetroot                                                   Half a unit

● Beetroot Soup                                         3 units

● Carrot                                                        1 and a half units

● Golden Carrot                                           3 units

● Golden Apple                                           2 units

● Enchanted Golden Apple                       2 units

● Bread                                                        2 and a half units

● Steak                                                        4 units

● Cooked Chicken                                     3 units 

● Cooked Porkchop                                  4 units

● Cooked Rabbit                                       2 and a half units

● Raw Rabbit                                             1 and a half units 

● Raw Beef                                                 1 and a half units

● Raw Chicken                                          1 unit

● Raw Porkchop                                       1 and a half units

●  SLICE of Cake                                        1 unit

●  WHOLE Cake                                          7 units

● Cooked Salmon                                      2 and a half units

● Clownfish                                               Half a unit

● Raw Fish                                                 1 unit

● Raw Salmon                                           1 unit

● Pufferfish                                              Half a unit

Controversy
Due to the controversy Hunger caused in Minecraft PC, the Minecraft PE team stated that they may or may not add hunger, but in the 21 Million Panel Live-stream, it was stated Hunger would be implemented in Update 0.12.1, which it was.

Trivia

 * The Hunger icon appears to resemble a drumstick
 * Golden Carrots will give the Player the Saturation Status Effect, which will fill the hunger bar no matter the difficulty.
 * When inflicted by Hunger, the Hunger Icon color will change to green.
 * When the player has the difficulty on peaceful, he/she will quickly regenerate hunger. If the difficulty is set on easy/medium/hard, he/she will slowly degenerate hunger if they move around frequently.
 * The lesser the player moves, the longer his/her saturation depletes.
 * Thus, sprinting and auto-regeneration depletes the hunger bar quickly.
 * The player will start to lose every 4 seconds when his/her hunger bar reaches 0 and until his/her health bar reaches 5 in Easy difficulty, 1 in Normal difficulty and 0 in Hard difficulty.