The food laws are advantageous for Jews of the Diaspora as it helps them become part of the community, linking them with other Jews. This is important because they had been exiled from their homeland and spread apart so the kashrut help them stay together.
When looking at the food laws you can see that some foods are forbidden and some should not be eaten together. This is only a problem if the Jew wants it to be. You can buy alternatives for some like soya milk instead of cow’s milk. Soya milk has less saturated fat than dairy milk and so has health benefits.
Keeping to the food laws helps Jews to keep a good diet. They have to spread their food intake out over the day meaning they do not eat too much food at once, so they are less likely to overeat.
There are limitations as to where Jews can eat or buy kosher food, and this can be an advantage in enabling them to form a close bond with the community and shops in that area.
However there are many disadvantages to observing strict food laws. If a young child was observing these strict food laws the limitations in what they could eat may cause them to be malnourished. For example, soya milk is less beneficial for a child than cow’s milk unless the soya is enriched with calcium. The laws are very strict and may only be kept by a very strong willed Jew. Not all Jews may have the willpower to observe all the laws.
The area the Jew is living in may be more remote and it may be difficult for them to obtain kosher food eg meat and if the Jew can purchase the meat it may be expensive for them, as it is kosher. There are other problems involved with this, as local residents may not provide enough custom for kosher shops unless the area is predominately Jewish or Muslim.
Nowadays religions mix and you can have many friends being Jews and non-Jews. Therefore it may be difficult for Jews to go to a party or dinner being held by non-Jews as they would have to be particularly careful as to what they eat and make sure whoever cooked the food observed all the kosher food laws. This also applies when Jews are going out to restaurants, and most Jews would only go to a traditional kosher restaurant to be sure that they were observing the kashrut.
In conclusion there are many advantages and disadvantages to observing strict food laws however if a Jew believed strongly enough in the laws and their religion then they could overcome the disadvantages and focus on the advantages of the food laws.
Bibliography
Ayre Forta, Judaism, New Edition
www.gospelcom.net/bible