As with most other peoples (e.g. Blacks, Hispanics of Native American origins), we have a cuisine designed for people who are starving. One should remember that calorie deficiency leads to an immediate and painful death. Our cuisine lacks many meat dishes (we could never afford much meat) and has minimal cheese (also a luxury item, even if most Ashkenazim weren’t lactose intolerant as adults). Sugar is a recent innovation in Europe, and it isn’t part of our traditional cuisine (same for corn produces). Bread and potatoes won’t kill you unless you overeat. Diabetes is largely a function of too much food and too little exercise, rather than a specific cuisine. High chloresterol could never be a problem with traditional Jewish cuisine since we couldn’t afford red meat and cheese. Given that Pizza (and hamburgers and hot dogs, not to mention sugar) have become the most popular foods of American Jews, I would attribute the health problems to American, rather than Jewish cuisine.
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