According to Christian theologian Gordon J. Wenham, the purpose of kashrut was to help Jews maintain a distinct and separate existence from other peoples; he says that the effect of the laws was to prevent socialization and intermarriage with non-Jews, preventing Jewish identity from being diluted [REF].
There have been attempts to provide empirical support for the view that Jewish food laws have an overarching health benefit or purpose, one of the earliest being from Maimonides in his Guide for the Perplexed.