I was induced in January with gel application at 3pm and syntocin from 8am the following morning. (There was no question that I had to have the gel, he was at -4 station and my Bishop score was only about 4. But it didn't start labour well enough, just sent me into pre-labour, so there was syntocin too.) There were no restrictions on eating: a midwife especially woke me before the syntocin to encourage me to go to breakfast and eat up.

In fact, it was very hot then and a mistake I made before the gels was to not drink enough water: I ended up being put on a drip to get my hydration up nicely. Both the gels and syntocin are hard on your body, so eat and drink well as you might in preparation for serious exercise.