Don't Try This At Home Kids.....

A retired prison guard has eaten his 25,000th Big Mac, 39 years to the day after eating his first nine. Don Gorske was honoured after reaching the meaty milestone during a ceremony at a McDonald's in his hometown of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.

"I plan on eating Big Macs until I die," he said without a hint of irony. "I have no intentions of changing. It's still my favourite food. Nothing has changed in 39 years. I look forward to it every day," in much the same way as any drug addict looks forward to his fix, fortunately for the people  of Fond du Lac there is no recorded instances of Don committing burglaries or stealing cars to fix his daily salt and fat fix.

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 on 17 May 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. Since that love at first bite he he has only gone eight days since without a Big Mac, and most days he eats two.
He said he is probably obsessive compulsive and that he likes repetition and doesn't like change, no shit Sherlock! He said he has kept many of the Big Mac boxes and receipts over the years, and has noted his purchases in calendars he has kept.

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 milligrams of sodium, which are both more than 40% of the Food and Drug Administration's daily recommended value for a 2,000-calorie diet.

Tara Gidus, a registered dietitian in Florida, said she would not recommend Gorske's Big Mac diet, and that he has likely stayed relatively healthy because of good genetics and because he does not order a lot of extras, such as fries and sodas.  She said the Big Mac provides protein and grains, which the body needs, and that she would be "less concerned about the bad stuff in the Big Mac and more concerned about the good stuff he's missing," such as fruit and vegetables.

I was in Paris the day the first McDonalds opened there, it was hiding away in a shopping arcade of the Champs and if it hadn't been for some pasty faced French youths handing out flyers to bemused shoppers I don't think I would have known it was there. I haven't eaten a McDonalds in the U.K for years, reserving my annual (not daily) intake to Paris as a reward for standing ten hours watching the end of the Tour. I have to say though that I'm at an age where the excitement of eating one has long since disappeared and I can understand Don's habitual craving after all we, or most of us, have all had obsessions at one point of our lives.