What You Don't Know About McDonald's Famous Big Mac

The Big Mac is the world's most famous hamburger. Since its early creation back in the late '60s, it's gone on to make McDonald's countless billions of dollars worldwide and has become nothing short of a cultural phenomenon. Even the recipe (two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions — on a sesame seed bun) is practically iconic.

Despite its ubiquity, however, there are plenty of aspects of the Big Mac's existence that are still little-known. In fact, beyond its name, ingredients and taste, it'd probably be fair to assume that many people don't know all that much about the Big Mac's life story. From its history, to its creator, to its impact on the world of economics, the effect it has on the human body and the world leader who can't help eating them in bed, here are a few of the more obscure facts about McDonald's flagship meal.

Although the name "Big Mac" is now pretty much inseparable from the look and taste of the McDonald's flagship burger, it wasn't always called that. When Delligatti first invented the sandwich, he named it the Aristocrat, probably in order to highlight its deluxe status on the menu. It failed to catch on with customers, however, mostly due to that inevitable whiff of elitism you're bound to get after naming a burger after a ruling social class. The Aristocrat was renamed the Blue Ribbon Burger — but this still failed to capture the hearts and minds of consumers.

Finally, in 1967, a young advertising secretary named Esther Glickstein Rose came up with the Big Mac name after being put on a spot before an important meeting, according to legend. As is to be expected in the world of '60s American advertising, her contribution was overlooked despite the name's incredible success. McDonald's wouldn't accept Rose's part in the story until 1984.

The worldwide impact of the Big Mac goes far beyond just the food industry. In 1986, The Economist introduced the Big Mac index: a universal indicator as to whether global currencies are currently sitting at their "correct" level. There's a whole lot of fancy economic theory driving the Big Mac index which has mostly to do with purchasing-power parity, which gauges the ability of exchange rates to progress so that the price of a certain product becomes the same across borders. In this case, that product is the Big Mac.

What originated as a joke has now been embraced by economists worldwide, and the Big Mac index is now accepted as a global standard and is taught to economics students in practically every country. It's a testament to the universal appeal of the Big Mac and the instant recognizability of the burger across the cultural spectrum. That or someone's not feeding the staff of The Economist well enough.

At the time of this writing, Donald Trump is just over 72 years old. This means that, if he were to eat a Big Mac every day from the moment he was born until the point at which you're reading this article, he still wouldn't have eaten as many Big Macs as Don Gorske.

Gorske, who lives in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, made history in 2018 by eating his 30,000th Big Mac. He himself claims that the burger represents somewhere around 90-95 percent of his overall food intake, and insists that his cholesterol and blood pressure haven't suffered for it. Since 1972, Gorske has gone only eight total days without eating a Big Mac, including one on which his local joint was shut during a snowstorm, and on the day of his mother's death. On the day he ate his 30,000th, Gorske gave a brief presentation to the small crowd who'd turned up to watch, before purchasing his 30,001st and returning home with his wife. His poor, poor wife.   

Here's something that won't come as a shock: despite what a certain Wisconsin resident will likely tell you, Big Macs aren't good for you. They're actually very, very not good for you. An infographic released in 2015 detailed the exact effects the burger has on your body. Within 10 minutes, your brain releases a surge of chemicals such as dopamine, which increase your pleasure levels and generally make you feel all warm and fuzzy.

After 30 minutes, your body draws in water to attempt to balance out the sodium you've just ingested; as a result, your heart beats faster to pump blood around the body. After 40 minutes, your depleted glucose levels cause an insulin spike and give you hunger pangs, making you want more food. Full digestion of the Big Mac takes over three days, and its longest-lasting ingredient — trans fats — take around 51 days to fully digest.  

Just like McDonald's itself, the Big Mac is often regarded as a symbol of American capitalism. And with ideas like the Big Mac ATM being bandied around, is it any wonder? It's exactly what it sounds like: an automatic burger dispenser placed on an intersection in Boston for just one day, back in 2017. While the burgers it gave out were free (it was a PR stunt, after all), the ATM would take your Twitter handle and demand permission to post from your account before giving you your burger. The tweets it sent out would pretty much advertise the Big Mac, musing on the many wonders of McDonald's and its fabulous burgers. What did you expect, though? There's no such thing as a free lunch.

Sadly, the Big Mac ATM was a one-off gimmick and hasn't been repeated since. Don't expect McDonald's to be installing these things in your local gas station anytime soon.

For over 50 years, the Big Mac has won hearts, fed stomachs,and blocked arteries across the world. But what's next for the world's most famous burger? According to The Atlantic, its future could be grim. Sales of the Big Mac were down 4.6 percent in 2014, while an internet hoax claiming McDonald's was phasing out the burger was met with a surprising willingness to accept its passing.

Of course, this is just one more thing we can blame on millennials — in 2016, McDonald's reported that only 20 percent of millennials had ever eaten a Big Mac. Everything is easier when we can blame it on the younger generation, right?

Certain reports suggest that McDonald's are considering cutting out the Quarter Pounder with Cheese, and their willingness to jump into gimmicky ventures such as the Grand Mac and Mac Jr. seem to demonstrate a certain desperation on the corporation's part. Although we're unlikely to see the Big Mac killed off entirely anytime soon, a shift in the paradigm certainly lingers somewhere on the horizon. And it's always worth remembering — nothing lasts forever.