I agree with this. I think hunger system as a necessary evil, lol. I've never really enjoyed it either - but it did bring up roleplay situations where I'd not go to a briefing and RPed instead getting something to eat. It adds a dimension to try out. I'd probably say that the health bar would be "50 percent" cut off in the hunger system but other than that wouldn't limit anything else such as sprinting.
I for one would never essential RP being hungry else, as its one of the things which you can easily over look when roleplaying.
Supporting this suggestion.
I personally used to role play eating out quite frequently - especially when restaurants or food related businesses were open. It was a rather regular occurrence when I was patrolling in the PD as it allowed some downtime and calm role play vs. the chaos of LEO role play on a large server. The point being here is that I chose to do so because I went to open businesses or had a reason to do so to enjoy some role play vs. being forced to do so by a script that would cripple me (decreasing health) otherwise.
Forcing a hunger system is unlikely to result in increased role play surrounding eating as people just run in, use the command to get food, and run out. On the other side increasing the amount of food-related businesses available for players to operate is much more likely to increase such role play.