This Wisconsin Man Has Eaten Over 34,000 Big Macs in His Life

If you've seen the documentary Super Size Me, you might remember Don Gorske.

Gorske was the friendly, lanky fellow with perfectly round glasses and a long, flowing bowl cut. He proudly shared with documentarian Morgan Spurlock that he's eaten at least one McDonald's Big Mac almost every day since he first tried the sandwich in 1972. When I first wrote about Gorske a couple of years ago, he had eaten 32,944 Big Macs. As of today, he's consumed 34,424. He was just re-awarded the Guinness World Record for the feat in February 2024.

I've tangentially followed Gorske ever since I saw Super Size Me when I was about nine-years-old. With the sudden, shocking death of Morgan Spurlock last week, I was motivated to look up and reach out to Gorske, who is in his 70s and resides in Fond Du Lac, WI with his wife, Mary.

Gorske has been eating Big Macs regularly for over 52 years. While he used to eat as many as nine-a-day, now he's got his process down to a science. Every Monday, he goes to his local McDonald's and orders six, one for each day through Wednesday. Then, on Thursday, he returns and orders eight, which will get him through Sunday night. Outside of a before-bed snack like potato chips, Big Macs are the primary food in Gorske's diet.

One thing that fascinated me about Gorske was how his obsessive-compulsiveness plays into this diet-turned-habit. He was candid when I asked:

My wife notices [my OCD tendencies] more than other people do. A lot of times, it's touching something over and over again. For me, at night when I'm locking the doors, I may check a door maybe three, four times a night to make sure it's locked, but the one that matters is the last one when my brain says, 'yes, it's locked, you don't need to check it anymore.' I don't know why the brain goes through all those processes [....] but it's just part of what my body does - Don Gorske

As someone with similar tendencies, especially when it comes to locked doors and repetitious "touching," I wholeheartedly empathize. But Gorske is a fascinating individual, although he wouldn't be quick to tell you that himself. He's the kind of textbook Midwest humble that I adore. He loves Big Macs. He's eaten over 34,000 of them. He keeps the receipts and boxes from each meal. He probably wouldn't tell you that unless you took notice of him eating, or just happen to know who he is.

The shocking death of documentarian Morgan Spurlock motivated me to check-up on Gorske via Google and then contact him for this interview. The eight-year-old in me who watched Super Size Me a couple dozen times would be proud. His comments on Morgan Spurlock's death are a mix of poignant and reflective.

Beyond that, Gorske talked about his former work as a correctional officer, his thoughts on other McDonald's specialty menu items, and more. Take a listen to the full interview with Don Gorske below, and learn more about him on his Wikipedia page!