Don Gorske Big Mac Guy
Hello and welcome to Episode 40 of Jay Wont darts podcast. My intro was from King Of the Hill.
This episode is about Don Gorske, I'll start by reading from Wikipedia.
From Wikipedia
"Don Gorske of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin is an American "Big Mac enthusiast" who has eaten over 23,000 Big Mac hamburgers in his lifetime,[1] winning a place in the 2006 Guinness Book of Records in the process. He claims the Big Mac constitutes 90% of his total solid food intake. He is featured in the documentaries Super Size Me (2004) and Don Gorske: Mac Daddy (2005). He is the author of 22,477 Big Macs (2008).
History
Gorske claims that after getting his first car, the first place he went was to McDonald's on May 17, 1972[1] he purchased and ate three Big Macs at lunch time. He then returned two more times that day to consume a total of nine Big Macs the same day he discovered the sandwich. He further claims to have eaten 265 Big Macs in the following month, an average of 8.5 Big Macs per day. If true, this would be equivalent to over 4,600 calories and 247 grams of fat daily, for a total of 143,100 calories and 16.9 pounds of fat in one month. He also claims to drink almost nothing but Coca-Cola and, according to Super Size Me, he rarely eats the fries. At first, Don kept all the boxes of Big Macs he ate in the back of his car.
In 2003, Don Gorske ate 741 Big Macs, an average of 2.03 Big Macs per day.
On August 17, 2008, Gorske ate his 23,000th Big Mac at his favorite McDonald's restaurant in Fond du Lac.[1] He claims that since he ate his first Big Mac, there have only been eight different days in which he did not eat a single Big Mac. One of these days was the day his mother died, and he did not eat a Big Mac to respect her request.[1] Other days included a "Snow Day" when McDonalds was unable to open due to snow, a Thanksgiving, days he was traveling and could not find a McDonalds, and various days Gorske had to stay at work past midnight. Gorske has since started keeping an "emergency stash" of Big Macs in his freezer for emergencies and snow days.[4] Don Gorske also records when and where he eats his Big Macs in a notebook that he carries with him all of the time. Gorske has kept every burger receipt in a box.[1]
"
Now, I want to mention a major reason why I chose to do an episode about Don Gorske. The guy eats all that fastfood, he says it makes up 90% of his food intake, so he basically eats just 2 burgers a day, along with liquids. The guy looks damn thin, he looks quite a lot like a hippie, if you imagine a hippie with "John Lennon" style round glasses, and brown hair in a bowlcut style, although he has a ponytail at the back. I'm mentioning Don because hes evidence that fast food is a sure cause of obesity, I really dont like hearing people who complain that big companies have forced everyone worldwide to become fat and lazy. I think what people eat is their own responsibility, although I have read books such as Fast Food Nation, and have watched Super Size Me, I'll play clips from that movie later. I do see a definite link between eating fatty foods and becoming fat yourself, but I really dont think its fair to blame mcdonalds when you choose to eat there 3 times a day. Don Gorske is a very quirky case, and I'd love him to go Vegan, but he sure isnt unhealthly from what I can tell, or from his health statistics that he tells people. I mention this because large animal welfare groups like PETA advertise going vegetarian as a way to lose weight, they often use the fact that vegetarians and vegans generally are slim, as if the only way you can be NOT FAT is if you dont eat animal products, apparently they have never seen Don Gorske.
I left this part out of the Wikipedia article, because I wanted you to think he weighed a metric ton.
"Gorske is 6 foot 2 inches tall, 185 pounds, and claims a cholesterol level of 140."
Im interrupting here, for every other country in the world, hes about 1.8 metres tall and weighs 83kg's. That makes his Body Mass Index, BMI, about 23.8, almost 24. A BMI is not amazingly accurate, very muscular people can be reported as being obese, for example, but its the best way to somewhat compare weights of people, to roughly group them as underweight for their height, average for their height, or overweight for their height.
Reading from the site I used to calculate Dons BMI,
• Underweight = <18.5
• Normal weight = 18.5-24.9
• Overweight = 25-29.9
• Obesity = BMI of 30 or greater
At just under 24 he would be on the heavier side of a normal weight for his height, normal being 18.5 to 24.9 . He looks quite thin, so he could have a lot of dense muscle, he definitely doesn't look like he has a double chin or a fat belly.
Back to wikipedia,
"His claimed average daily consumption of two Big Macs amounts to 1,080 calories, according to the nutritional information published by McDonald's[2]; this does not take into account his energy intake from fluids. The USDA recommends about 2,200 calories per day.[3] Gorske consumes mainly calorie-rich food, and he maintains a stable weight by eating fewer calories than the average American."
Ok, I dont think thats a healthy way to eat, "sure you can eat anything you want, as long as you only eat half the calories that you are meant to", I dont think that sounds healthy. I dont recommend that anyone eat mostly hamburgers every day for years. Im talking about Don Gorske because I find him interesting, he has such a weird Guinness book of records style life.
My first clip is an AP news story about Don,
Don works as a Prison Guard. I've heard reports that Don is OCD, Obsessive Compulsive, and that perhaps he feels he needs to eat Big Macs every day, its a routine hes gotten stuck in and wouldnt be able to quit. However, he did apparently go without a Big Mac on the day his mother died, it was one of her wishes, so at least for major things like a parents death, he can go without Big Macs.
Reading about Fon du Lac, no doubt Im pronouncing the name wrong, it means Foot of the Lake in french, its a small city of about 42 thousand people. Another famous resident of the city is King Camp Gillette, his first two names are odd, but you might remember his surname, Gillette, he invented the safety razor and founded the Gillette company.
I also found two idiot guys talking about Don Gorske, they run a morning zoo type radio show apparently. you can find them at http://www.thefrickandfrackshow.com/ , its odd watching a video of these two fat american guys put down a thin american who eats almost nothing but fast food.
<2 guys talking clip>
My last clips will be from Super Size Me, a documentary about director Morgan Spurlock eating nothing but Mcdonalds for a month. These clips are about Don Gorske.
Before the end, I'd like to thank a second listener for contacting me, on Twitter, BigBadEd mentioned finding my podcast on iTunes while looking up No Agenda related podcasts, BigBadEd said hes not vegan himself, but was interested in what I talk about. BigBadEd is a British guy who lives in America, and who thought about moving to New Zealand. Well BigBadEd, I hope you come and visit sometime, I'd love to show you around Invercargill, population 50,000 on a good day, home to the southernmost Mcdonalds in the world, as well as the southernmost Vegans! I hope that cancels out the Fast Food vibes.
my outro will be about guns being given away in America when you buy a car.
Thank you for listening.
You can find the script for this episode, as well as downloads for every episode of Jay Wont darts podcast at jaywontdart.blogspot.com
If you want to contact me, even just to say you listened, send an email to jaywontdart@gmail.com, j a y w o n t d a r t @ gmail.com, I'd appreciate it.
Have a super happy day, bye.
Sources
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Gorske
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fond_du_Lac,_Wisconsin
http://everything2.com/title/Don+Gorske
Morgan Spurlock, Supersize Me
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgan_Spurlock
BMI
http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/
AP story
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsEC9OjOBwc
2 guys talking http://www.thefrickandfrackshow.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9T-vxNCrQo&feature=player_embedded
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