Speaking to a lot of newer players starting, without /RT, they tend to starve before they find a suitable home. they have enough food, but spice of life kicks in too quickly, meaning that starting food just cant be eaten. A way to ease the starting player without changing game difficulty overall would be to increase the number of food items that can be consumed before spice of life takes effect. if memory serves it was 6 when i started, increasing this to however much the new player starts with will help them get set up in the world, and encourage new players to stay on the server.
Sorry for the late response, i have been rather busy. this is a good idea. Hows 25 foods sound, before SoL kicks in.[DOUBLEPOST=1452545977,1452490858][/DOUBLEPOST]Ok, i did some testing, and in 1.2.7 i reworked the way SoL works. It wont kick in untill a new player eats 20 times. After that it will be based on Hunches instead of times eaten. This will make top teired food better. Since you only need a few of them to reset the counter. Thanks to Booker for the tip.
The way I survived when I played on civ is I use gardens from pam's. You can right click and pick them up and take them with you. They provide a Varity of foods to eat and they are common.