When God commands you to eat His Body and Blood, how is it cannibalism?
Is God a corpse? Is His body mere dead flesh?
Or is He Life itself?
You could find the answer to the questions you raise by looking at what wen t out of Adam and Eve when they sinned. Did they die immediately a physical death? No, but their once alive spirits realize they were suddenly dead and exposed in unrighteousness.
Did Jesus and the apostles eat the real actual body of Christ at the last supper??