In the 1800s, people used to eat paper bread—yes, bread made from shredded paper. It was a cheap filler during famines. The taste? Imagine cardboard, but with less ambition.
Which Paper Should I Use? | Choosing Paper Weight
Even today, some cultures eat edible paper. You’ve seen those translucent rice paper sheets used in spring rolls. That’s basically paper, just fancy and delicious. And what about communion wafers? That’s paper, folks. You’ve been eating it at church for years.
So technically, if you’ve ever had a spring roll or taken communion, you’re already a paper-eater. Welcome to the club. Your membership card is a napkin.
But What About the Environment?
Here’s a twist: eating paper might actually be better for the planet than recycling it. Sort of. If you eat a piece of paper, it goes into your body and eventually—how do I put this politely—becomes part of the natural cycle again.
But don’t start a diet trend called “The Printer Tray Cleanse.” The energy your body uses to process paper is more than the tiny amount of fiber you get. You’d burn more calories chewing than you’d gain. It’s the ultimate negative-calorie food, which is just a fancy way of saying “pointless.”
And let’s be real: nobody wants to walk into a meeting and see you munching on the agenda. That’s a promotion-killer.
