By John Salak –
Wisconsin is known for a lot of things. It’s called the Dairy State for a good reason. Milwaukee also has been famous for its beer and brats for more than a century. And beyond this, the state can brag—and does—that its residents consume more brandy than anywhere else in the union thanks in large part to their love of Manhattans.
Recently, however, the state or at least one of its residents has gobbled up another record, although this one is at best dubious in health terms. Guinness World Records announced recently that Fond du Lac resident Donald Gorske, 70, chowed down on 728 Big Mac burgers in 2023 to bring his record-setting lifetime total of these sandwiches to 34,128.
What may be even more mentally undigestible is that Gorske claims to have saved the receipt and packages from every Big Mac he has eaten since he first tried one on May 17, 1972.
“In that moment, I said: ‘I’m going to probably eat these for the rest of my life. I threw the cartons in the back seat and started counting them from day one,” he told the Guinness World Records report.
Now admittedly, Gorske has changed his eating habits since he started, whittling down his daily consumption from about nine a day to more like two Big Macs daily. He also skips adding French fries to the mix in a nod to keeping his weight in trim. Ultimately, he said the diet has served him well.
“Many people thought I’d be dead by now but instead I’ve been a record holder for my 24th year—one of Guinness World Records’ longer-running record holders, so that’s pretty cool to me.”
Not everyone is convinced, however. Afterall, a Big Mac just by itself has 590 calories, 34 grams of fat, about 10 grams of sugar and lots of cholesterol. Over the course of 52 years, this means Gorske has consumed more than 20 million Big Mac calories.
One commenter noted that this dieting approach is a dangerous food nightmare, especially when combined with a Big Mac meal that includes French fries and a soft drink and tops out at 1,300 calories.
“This combination of high-calorie, high-fat, and high-sodium items promotes an unbalanced diet that is not conducive to maintaining a healthy weight or supporting cardiovascular well-being,”
nutritionist Lisa Richards told shefinds.com.
Okay, records are great and maybe having a Big Mac every now and then is fine. But gobbling almost 35,000 of these sandwiches over 50 years is a high price to pay for fame.
