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"This language strongly suggests that “eats my flesh” should most likely be taken as a metaphor for coming to Jesus, while “drinks my blood” is most likely a metaphor for belief in Jesus."

I don't think so.

Jesus Himself said that It is His Body and Blood:

And as they were eating, He took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them, and said, "Take; this is My body." And he took a cup, and when He had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And He said to them, "This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many". -Mark 14:22-24

Jesus says "This is My Body". Not "This symbolizes my body", or "This represents my body", or "This is an emblem of my body", or even "This contains my body". No, He said "This IS My Body", and since He is God whatever He speaks becomes so: "So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and prosper in the thing for which I sent it" (Isaiah 45:10-11).

If God Incarnate picks up a piece of bread and proclaims "This is My Body" it becomes His Body! Whether we can understand how it happens or not doesn't matter. We cannot understand how God created the universe out of nothing, but we believe it because the Bible says He did (Gen 1:1). So why can't we believe that the same God can change bread into His Body and Blood? We must take God at His word.

Jesus said to them: "I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh." (John 6:48-52)

Here He says "I AM the living Bread"; not "My word is the living bread", not "Your belief in Me is the living bread". Then He says that the bread He will give is His Flesh! He does not say "The bread which I shall give for the life of the world is My written word". He says that the living bread, the Bread of Life, is His Flesh! Catholics take Jesus on His word here.

Then Our Lord gets even more explicit:

"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever." (John 6:54-59)

Jesus could not have been speaking symbolically here, for His listeners took him literally and left, but He never corrected their literal interpretation. He let them go, then turned to His apostles and said "Will you also go away?" Surely, if they misunderstood, He would have corrected them as He had earlier corrected Nicodemus (John 3:3-8) and the Samaritan Woman (John 4:10-14) when they misunderstood His words. The fact that He did not correct anyone in this case shows that those who left understood Him, but could not accept it (John 6:60).

Another reason why He could not have meant it figuratively is that, in that culture, the term "to eat ones flesh" figuratively means slandering or falsely accusing someone (see Psalm 27:2). Was Jesus saying "He who slanders me will have eternal life"? Of course not! So He must be speaking literally; He wants Christians to partake of His Risen Body and Blood, so that we might abide in Him and He in us (vs 57). This is how we become one Body in Him and with Him:

"The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread" (I Cor 10:16-17)

The Bible says that the Eucharist is a "participation" in the Body and Blood of Christ! How can that be if it's "just a symbol"? You cannot actually participate in something by partaking of a mere symbol of it, and not the real thing. And how can a mere symbol of Jesus' Body actually make us one Body in Him? The "symbolic" interpretation of the Eucharist is anti-biblical!

How about this verse: "Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord" (I Cor 11:27). If Jesus Body and Blood are not truly present then we cannot become "guilty of profaning His Body and Blood" by receiving Communion unworthily. But if the Eucharist is truly Jesus' Body and Blood, then receiving Him unworthily is definitely a profanation! Some of the Corinthians were getting sick and dying (vs. 30) because they were receiving Jesus' Body and Blood unworthily, not because they were receiving mere symbols unworthily.

Or how about this one: "For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body" (I Cor 11:29). This verse is self-explanatory. Christians must discern the Lord's Body in the Eucharist. We must recognize Him in the breaking of the bread (Luke 24:35).

An honest reading of all the verses regarding Communion proves that the Bible teaches that the Eucharist is the true Body and Blood of Jesus. Nowhere does the Bible say "the bread we break is just a symbol" or "the bread and wine are emblems of His Body and Blood". That's an unbiblical, anti-biblical heresy fabricated by Ulrich Zwingli less than five centuries ago! Christians before then believed the Scriptural truth that Jesus Christ is truly, objectively present in the Blessed Sacrament.