-Long Rests
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-Possible Solutions:
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The easiest way to solve this issue is to have some invisible timer behind the scenes, making a certain amount of time to have to pass before the players' group can long rest. Real-time could be a reasonable amount of time the player spends playing the game (having the timer stop when the game is paused or when in dialogue) before they are notified they should long rest.
Other than this, it could be after a certain amount of XP gained or at certain set up milestones throughout the campaign. Certain areas could be granted asylum status, such as a city from where the players will set out on another journey or quest, and thus would allow the players to take a long rest whenever they want. This would be ok because it would represent the players possibly taking a few days off at an inn to gather supplies, which commonly happens between "chapters" or bug milestones in real-life campaigns.
I suggest an invisible timer because then the players can focus on in-game cues, like the characters expressing exhaustion verbally, which they already do in the game, except those interactions don't really demonstrate anything important to the player right now. Obviously a visible timer would also be fine, but it might have the result of having players stare at the timer when they are in dire straights instead of focusing on the actual game in front of them and how they can still complete their goals.
I like this idea a lot, players who want to play safe could take time and those willing to take more risks could try to keep moving without waiting for the long rest to be "recharged".
-Food and Health
Food heals more than my potions sometimes, and seeing as how potions and healing spells are expensive and a huge part of D&D quests, it throws the balance of health resources way off.
Firstly, lets look at DURING battles. Food can be used in place of a potion to heal a character. The amount of health gained, depending on the food, can be enormous, and more than a potion of healing even at a full roll of 12 (or around that). If food wasn't so much cheaper, or had some sort of downside like making you slow or some type of debuff, it would be more acceptable, but as it is now it just makes healing during battle easier in a game that should be emphasizing good limited resource management. This is not super egregious, but it is a little odd and makes potions not feel really worth it to buy, and healers a little less important in battle. If my cure wounds spell does about as much healing as a pie I found in a cart, but costs an action instead of a bonus action, I definitely feel less like using cure wounds and more like focusing on offensive spells all the time. [...]
Secondly, there is OUT OF battles. Characters can chow down on apples and raw chicken until they are full health, which goes back to my argument about Long Rests and the importance of balancing resource management. Usually, adventurers have to carefully consider and prepare healing spells and healing items like potions, which either extinguish a very valuable resource that could be used for other things (prepared spells, spell slots) or cost a significant amount of money (regular potions in D&D cost 50gp each, since they are considered magical alchemical creations) and then there are short rests at certain intervals of play, which of course right now is 2 at any time. If I can stock up on apples and save my spell slots and money in exchange, then there is really no risk or punishment to being lazy or reckless with my health bar. Part of the challenge is figuring out when to press on and when to turn back; health is precious and adventurers will often travel around bouncing between 40-80% health as they decide to use spell slots and items outside of battle.
-Possible Solutions
Food could just be eliminated as a health source, or could heal significantly less, even being capped at a percentage of the players health before it stops healing altogether.
Totally agree with this.
