After doing what you suggested on the other issue, add all the sections, I found that changing the hunger values of items worked, but that blacklisting anything did not. (Harvesting, Drops, and Food) Here is a copy of my JSON. I do not know if this stems from the same problem that is fixed once beta 5 comes out, but I hope I helped, and am not being too much of a pain in your ass.

There's a syntax error in that JSON. Your log will probably have something like:

[20:45:39] [Client thread/INFO] [HungerOverhaul/HungerOverhaul]: Loading JSON Files
[20:45:39] [Client thread/WARN] [HungerOverhaul/HungerOverhaul]: Error Loading json files: 
com.google.gson.JsonSyntaxException: com.google.gson.stream.MalformedJsonException: Expected name at line 29 column 10

The error is the trailing comma after "minecraft:wheat" here:

            "name": "minecraft:wheat",
            //"meta": 7

There's a second error due to defining a blank food in the foods array.

"foods": [
    {
        // empty object
    }
]

To define an empty array, you'd do this instead:

"foods": [
]

I'll commit a fix for the error that an empty food causes in a bit.

Here's a working version of the JSON you posted:

{
    // a list of foods that should not have their food values modified by HO
    // the foods in this list will not have their values changed by HO at all (even if specified in the 'foods' section above)
    "foodsBlacklist": [
    ],

    // a list of crop blocks that should not have their drops modified by HO
    "dropsBlacklist": [
        {
            // the name of the block in "mod:name" format
            "name": "minecraft:wheat",
            // [optional] the metadata value of the block (default: wildcard (any metadata))
            "meta": 7
        }
    ],

    // a list of crop blocks that should not have their right-click behavior modified by HO
    "harvestBlacklist": [
        {
            // the name of the block in "mod:name" format
            "name": "minecraft:wheat"
        }
    ],

    "foods": [
    ]
}

Oh, and by the way:

I hope I helped, and am not being too much of a pain in your ass.

Bugs getting reported is never a pain. Thanks for taking the time to report them.

And thank you for helping! its a beautiful mod and is something I've wanted since they added hunger. I also have no idea where those comas came from, but they're definitely in the file.