May 17, 1972. American Don Gorske still remembers his first encounter with the McDonalds classic Big Mac.
“At that moment I said to myself: I will probably eat these for the rest of my life,” says Don Gorske in an interview with Guinness World Record, reports The Guardian.
The love was total from the first bite and since then Gorske has kept every single receipt and every single box in which the hamburger was delivered.
Back in 1999, he took the record for the most Big Macs consumed in a lifetime, and now he also holds the record for the longest time of anyone in the Guinness Book of Records.
“Many thought I would be dead by now, but instead I am the one who has held a record for the longest time. I think it’s pretty cool,” says Gorske.
“About lifestyle”
Gorske used to visit McDonald’s daily and could eat upwards of nine Big Macs a day. Nowadays, the daily intake is reduced to two hamburgers. Often he buys several at a time and eats one of them right away. He takes the rest home and heats it in the microwave when hunger creeps up again.
Regular and excessive consumption of fast food is not without risks. On the contrary, the risk of obesity, cardiovascular diseases and high blood pressure is great.
So far, none of the risks have stopped Gorske from eating the hamburger. To be able to eat the way he does, he skips the fries, and he also walks around a mile every day.
“It’s not about the food you eat, it’s about your lifestyle,” as Gorske himself put it in an interview with ABC News a year ago.
The dietitian: “You can eat everything but not all the time”
According to dietician Emma Lindblom, there are several risks with Gorske’s hamburger intake.
– He may not have a calorie surplus, but on the other hand, there are many nutrients that are missing if you eat such a one-sided diet.
A varied diet makes it easier to get the nutrients the body needs. A Big Mac also contains a lot of saturated fat, which can be the basis for cardiovascular diseases. According to Emma Lindblom, there is also a risk that he Gorske gets too little fiber.
– Now he is fine, but I suspect that his blood lipids are elevated and that he may be malnourished. I think others who choose this diet would have stomach and intestinal problems.
But – as with most things – there is no danger in eating a hamburger sometimes, says Emma Lindblom.
– I wouldn’t recommend this diet, but a burger sometimes isn’t strange. You can eat everything, but not all the time.