Answer: Mu!
On the one hand, passing out at 2 AM is a fairly trivial cost. 10% of gold, max 1k, is not a hefty price if it means getting to another elevator level. It is, at worst, an annoyance if I was almost back and didn't quite make it, because then I got the worst of both worlds... both trying to make it back and failing anyway.
On the other hand, there's a reason I never dive mines without food. And this is that reason. In the early game, you have two food sources available to you: Spring Onions and Salmonberries. Even if you don't hit Foraging 4 before Salmonberry season hits, you can still collect over a hundred salmonberries over a day or two, and since they're all guaranteed to be of normal quality, they are also all guaranteed to stack up in a single item slot, making them a perfect mine snack. If you start taking hits and are lower on HP than you like, pop a few. You'll feel right as rain. Ideally, I'll never BE as low as 10 HP, but if for some reason I manage to get that low, I just eat some berries. Later on, once you have a Barn and some cows, Cheese is an even better source of health and energy.
Food: It does a body good.