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Much has been written about the question over whether Darth Vader eats (see for instance, http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/103811/does-darth-vader-eat). It is more notable perhaps that the Star Wars universe seems to have a strange relationship with the subject of food and sustenance overall.

Accepting or taking food often means either stepping into a trap or being tricked. When Yoda and Luke Skywalker share a meal this serves the purpose of frustrating Luke's impatient desire to get on with his mission. The banquet at Bespin is a sham facade set up by Lord Vader to entrap Han Solo and Princess Leia and when Chewbacca grabs for a tasty carcass on Endor he triggers the Ewoks' trap. We do see Princess Leia feed Wicket to earn his trust, but more often than not food serves as a subterfuge for something else.

Furthermore, in the Star Wars world there is something literally distasteful about food and those who flaunt their liking for it. Only the lower species seem to get particularly hungry, or openly show themselves to have an appetite. The Wampa knaws on a bone, Chewbacca triggers a trap by thinking with his stomach and the Ewoks prepare a banquet of roast Rebels. Jar Jar can't but help get himself into trouble over food twice on Tatooine, Jabba The Hutt gorges on slimy frogs whilst the Rancor Monster chomps on a Gamorrean Guard and the Sarlaac digests it's victims over a thousand years. It is also notable that Yoda's fussing over his cooking pot only compounds Luke's impression of him as a buffoon-like lowly distraction to his quest to find a grand Jedi Master and a 'great warrior'.

When characters in the Star Wars universe actually do sit down to eat, it's almost always associated with poverty and lowliness. There is a sit down meal in Episode I in Shmi's slave dwelling, we see Aunt Beru preparing food and an after dinner discussion at the Lars Homestead in Episode IV and Rey sits down to eat the meagre amount of food that she has bartered in exchange for her scavenged goods in Episode VII. Yoda sits down to eat as a strange impoverished hermit and when Anakin and Padmé sit down to eat on the freighter from Coruscant to Naboo in Episode II they are disguised as peasants.

One time we do get a picture of privileged eating is at the retreat on Naboo in Episode II when Anakin breaks the Jedi code by sending fruit floating around the table. The incident reminds us of Jar Jar's tongue flying across the dinner table in Episode I and the inference is that his behaviour is no less uncouth. Table manners are a minefield in the Star Wars Galaxy.

In general though food and meals serve the plot and none of the characters deliberately stop for food. They don't seem to get hungry or tired. Not until Episode VII on Jakku do we see someone eating or drinking out of hunger or necessity. Even though Abrams changes the trend here he continues the theme that openly showing one's appetite or eating in public is a socially distasteful attribute. Despite her obviously near-starvation, Rey waits until she gets home and eats in private. There is something distinctly unbecoming about the public consumption of sustenance. This is illustrated further when Finn is driven by thirst to share a trough of water next to the rather filthy-looking happobore beast.

In fact, instances of eating in public are portrayed as being particularly repulsive. The vile gangster, Jabba the Hutt gorges on slimy amphibians in front of his entire court in The Return of the Jedi and bites off and spits the head of a Chuba fish into the gong in The Phantom Menace to start the Boonta Eve Challenge; this time in front of an even bigger audience. Eating in public is part of his repulsiveness and lack of charm.

The polite custom of not eating in public also arises in the Clone Wars series Season 4, Episode 4 (Mercy Mission). When the starving Aleena politely refuse the setting up of a communal kitchen by the Clone Troopers sent to provide relief, C-3PO suggests of the people of Aleen that 'perhaps they do not allow eating in public'. No further explanation is given for this.

This aversion to food even extends into the representation of obesity in the Original Trilogy. In A New Hope the only portly character is the X-Wing Fighter pilot Jek Porkins. That his name suggests a pig-like fondness for over-eating can escape nobody. Then in The Empire Strikes Back we have the Ugnaughts who, although only a little on the portly side, are unmistakably pig-like. In The Return of the Jedi we get the most hoggish of all Lucas's characters, the Gamorrean Guards. More like Gammon Guards in fact, they epitomise the LucasFilm aversion to gluttony. To complement this theme of gluttony at Jabba's Palace we also have the obese dancer Yarna D'Al'Gargan whose surname contains the first six letters of the word gargantuan which is surely no coincidence. In popular parlance sluglike gangster Jabba's name has even become a synonym for greed and gluttony.

In the Star Wars universe it seems almost a matter of social etiquette not to profess hunger or appetite. Just as in the Judeo-Christian tradition, gluttony is one of the seven deadly sins. Restraint, moderation, abstinence and temperance are applauded values. With subliminal messages such as this I suspect that LucasFilm never did much for the sale of popcorn or bacon sandwiches for that matter.

In conclusion, you have to wonder what this aversion to food and drink says about the character Willrow Hood from the Empire Strikes Back who (when escaping from Bespin) the only possession he grabs to escape from the Empire with is an undisguised 1970s ice cream maker. Go Willrow!

Note 1: The theme extends fairly consistently into The Last Jedi in which we see the mighty Chewbacca shamed out of sinking his teeth into a roasted Porg. This contrasts sharply though with The Return of the Jedi in which his inability to restrain his appetite on Endor is what gets Chewie and his comrades captured by the tribe of Ewoks. In The Last Jedi we also see a full and rather oplulent cakestand at the Casino frequented by the arms dealers which is a symbol of their excess, gluttony and immorality. This is the most lavish display of food so far anywhere in the Star Wars canon.

Note 2: There is one exception to the rule which I can find and this is the deleted scene at the home of Padmé's parents in The Attack of the Clones. This is the one instance in which eating a meal (and in affluent suroundings) is not a pretext for anything else or an indication of gluttony, beastliness or inappropriate behaviour. Nonetheless, even here it is good manners not to profess hunger. This is a normal upper middle class sit-down meal in which nothing is out of place. However, when asked if he's hungry Anakin replies 'A little' and Padmé corrects him telling her parents that he's actually very hungry but just being polite. This again confirms that as a general rule it's polite not profess or show hunger openly in the Star Wars galaxy.

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