FOOD PROHIBITIONS CITATION NEEDED

Humans

Main article: Cannibalism

 

Of all the taboo meat, human flesh ranks as the most heavily proscribed. In recent times humans have consumed the flesh of fellow humans in rituals and out of insanity, hatred, or overriding hunger – never as a common part of their diet, but it is thought that the practice was once widespread among all humans.^[65] The consumption of human flesh is forbidden by Hinduism.^[66] Judaism and Islam also forbid cannibalism.^{[citation needed]}
Catholics, Lutherans, and Orthodox Christians do not view themselves as engaging in cannibalism when taking communion, as it is believed that although the bread and wine become of the same substance as the body and blood of Christ before being consumed, they remain bread and wine in all ways to the senses.^[67] Catholics refer to this as transubstantiation; the Orthodox believe the change occurs, but hesitate to attempt a description of the mechanism, believing it to be a sacred mystery. Most Protestants and other Christian denominations do not believe that transubstantiation (or any actual physical presence of Jesus in any form) occurs at all.^[68]
Cannibalism used to be required in certain tribes; the Fore people of Papua New Guinea were particularly well-studied in their eating of the dead, because it led to kuru, a disease believed to be transmitted by prions. In the book Daily life in China, on the eve of the Mongol invasion, 1250-1276 Jacques Gernet refers to restaurants that specialized in human flesh. From the context, it does not appear that this was a freak event associated with famine.