Religion strives to lift them out of the merely physical into the realm of the spirit. It begins as a biological act, a means of satisfying hunger. It helps to cement friendship. When a meal takes place in connection with simcha shel mitzvah , the joy of observance of a commandment, it becomes a solemn act that helps add significance to an occasion. On the Sabbath, or even more, on Pesah at the seder, eating becomes a religious act, an act of worship, with the table becoming an altar of God.
Religion thus raises the biological act into the dimension of the holy.
Hence the connection in the Torah between the dietary laws and holiness. Rabbi Samuel H. Dresner suggests that the dietary laws have as their purpose the teaching of reverence for life. Since it was felt that man must eat meat, the act was surrounded with regulations which would prevent him from being brutalized and instead would eause him to develop reverence for life. This would explain the purpose of the dietary laws as a whole. There are additional reasons which apply to parts of the laws or to one specific practice.