Man eats 25,000th Big Mac, 39 years after his 1st

FOND DU LAC, Wis. (AP) — A retired prison guard ate his 25,000th

Big Mac on Tuesday, 39 years to the day after eating his first ...

nine.

Don Gorske was honored after reaching the meaty milestone during a

ceremony at a McDonald’s in his hometown of Fond du Lac. Surely

McDonald’s most loyal customer, Guinness World Records recognized

Gorske’s feat three years and 2,000 Big Macs ago, and the

59-year-old says he has no desire to stop.

“I

plan on eating Big Macs until I die,” he said. “I have no

intentions of changing. It’s still my favorite food. Nothing has

changed in 39 years. I look forward to it every day.”

The sign beneath the golden arches Tuesday read “Congrats Don

Gorske 25000 Big Macs.” 

Before he ate No. 25,000, he said, “It’s been seven years since

20,000. Same thing goes this year folks. You can’t have the carton

and it probably still takes 16 bites for me to finish a Big

Mac.”

The crowd erupted into applause.

Gorske, who appeared in the 2004 documentary “Super Size Me,” which

examined the fast food industry, looks nothing like one might

expect of a fast food junkie. He’s trim and walks regularly for

exercise, and he attributes his build to being “hyperactive.” He

said he was recently given a clean bill of health and that his

cholesterol is low.

Gorske’s obsession with the burger — two all-beef patties, special

sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun, for

those not familiar with the once-ubiquitous ads — started May 17,

1972, when he bought three Big Macs to celebrate the purchase of a

new car. He was hooked, and went back to McDonald’s twice more that

day, eating nine before they closed.

He’s only gone eight days since without a Big Mac, and most days he

eats two. Among the reasons he skipped a day was to grant his

mother a dying wish. His last Big Mac-less day was Thanksgiving

2000, when he forgot to stock up and the store was closed for the

holiday.

McDonald’s says there are 540 calories in a Big Mac, which is more

than a quarter of the calories a person on a 2,000-calorie diet

would consume. The burger also contains 29 grams of fat and 1,040

grams of sodium, which are both more than 40 percent of the Food

and Drug Administration’s daily recommended value for a

2,000-calorie diet.