One can read for oneself from the Gospel of John that the doubters in the bread of life discourse doubted because they took Jesus literally and found it offensive and unbelievable that Jesus would offer His own flesh to eat:
John 52-56:
52 Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
53 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.
55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.
56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them.
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Because there were so many doubters, Jesus kept repeating the fact that His real flesh was real food and must really be eaten.
Even today there are doubters who reject His words.
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...the Freepers began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”...
Yes they can. The Jews were doing the same thing that the Roman Catholics do in thinking it was the literal, physical flesh Jesus was talking about. They, like the Roman Catholics did not understand that Jesus was the “bread of life”, the “bread sent from heaven”. The difference between the Jews and Roman Catholics was that they saw the physical flesh analogy repulsive but the Roman Catholics don’t.
Put you faith in the flesh if you want but Jesus said:
I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, that anyone may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down out of heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. Yes, the bread which I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."
John 6:35 “And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.”
You must then believe that Jesus is a loaf of bread. I don’t.