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This Guy Ate Pizza Every Day For 25 Years, And Lived To Tell The Tale
Esquire ^ | July 16, 2014 | Megan Friedman

Posted on 07/19/2014 5:26:43 PM PDT by nickcarraway

Here's what he (and we) have learned from his oddball diet.

As the saying goes, pizza is like sex. Even if it’s bad, it’s still pizza. And just like sex, there are people out there addicted to pizza.

Meet Dan Janssen, a Maryland man who has gained a minor level of fame for eating pizza every day for 25 years. In a mini-documentary produced by Vice, Janssen talks about the repercussions of his oddball diet. Here are five key lessons.

Pizza obsession is deeper than just a food preference. Janssen says his picky diet likely stems from a few traumatic experiences as a kid, and he’s working with a therapist to figure out his food aversion. Combine that with a vegetarian diet and a simultaneous hatred for vegetables, and you get his insistence on only eating plain cheese pizza every day.

But a weird diet won’t stop you from finding love. The documentary introduces us to Janssen’s saintly fiancée, who puts up with his pizza diet – but certainly doesn’t like it. She encourages him to diversify his diet for the good of his health. She’s now convinced him to drink a healthy smoothie every day for breakfast.

It will, however, make you Internet famous. After a Vice article introduced him to the world, he’s been bombarded with emails, spokesperson offers and interview requests. He’s been dubbed the Pizza King and a “hero” to gluttons around the world.

A pizza-centric diet might not kill you. At least not quickly. Janssen, who has diabetes, insists his diet doesn’t affect his disease and that doctors have given him a clean bill of health. His fiancée is skeptical. “We’re all gonna die,” Janssen says. “I’m gonna die with pizza in my stomach.”

You should probably still eat vegetables, though. Janssen says he almost never touches veggies, but once ate a pizza with mushrooms on it, and it was OK. “But why would I eat a carrot when I could eat a pizza?” he said in an interview. Medical professionals can likely come up with a few reasons.


TOPICS: Food; Health/Medicine; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: pizza; pizzasauce; stevejobs
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1 posted on 07/19/2014 5:26:44 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

Pizza is bread, meat, cheese, sauce. What’s a sandwich? Bread, meat, cheese, condiments.


2 posted on 07/19/2014 5:28:23 PM PDT by Tax-chick (La cruz y el dolor son amor. Amor es mandato de Dios.)
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To: Tax-chick

tomato sauce is a vegetable!!!


3 posted on 07/19/2014 5:31:11 PM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: GeronL

So are onions, olives, peppers, mushrooms, etc.


4 posted on 07/19/2014 5:37:35 PM PDT by Tax-chick (La cruz y el dolor son amor. Amor es mandato de Dios.)
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To: Tax-chick

pineapples are pretty good too


5 posted on 07/19/2014 5:38:01 PM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: Tax-chick

bell peppers, yum


6 posted on 07/19/2014 5:38:15 PM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: nickcarraway

Its like he never left college.


7 posted on 07/19/2014 5:38:25 PM PDT by Vince Ferrer
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To: GeronL

Onions and mushrooms are my favorite toppings.


8 posted on 07/19/2014 5:38:58 PM PDT by Tax-chick (La cruz y el dolor son amor. Amor es mandato de Dios.)
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To: GeronL

I count bacon as a vegetable.


9 posted on 07/19/2014 5:39:07 PM PDT by Lurker (Violence is rarely the answer. But when it is it is the only answer.)
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To: nickcarraway
Moochelle won't approve.
10 posted on 07/19/2014 5:41:06 PM PDT by fatnotlazy
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To: nickcarraway

I’m on a diet, so I always tell them to cut my pizza into 4, not 8 peices.


11 posted on 07/19/2014 5:42:24 PM PDT by umgud (I couldn't understand why the ball kept getting bigger......... then it hit me.)
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To: nickcarraway

He has Diabetes, and a Clean Bill of Health?

So much for that Pre Existing Conditions thing.

I guess Obamacare is working after all.


12 posted on 07/19/2014 5:42:32 PM PDT by Kickass Conservative (THEY LIVE, and we're the only ones wearing the Sunglasses...)
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To: Vince Ferrer; Slings and Arrows
Its like he never left college.

"25 years of college, down the drain..."


13 posted on 07/19/2014 5:42:35 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (Elian Gonzalez sought asylum and was sent back to Cuba, send these kids back to THEIR parents.)
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To: umgud
I’m on a diet, so I always tell them to cut my pizza into 4, not 8 pieces.

Yeh - you'd have to be really hungry to eat eight pieces anyway.

14 posted on 07/19/2014 5:43:59 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: nickcarraway
There are some frozen pizzas that are head and shoulders better than the restaurants. One of my favorites is King Pin Pizza. It's a Wisconsin brand, but I mean this baby when its cooked will put the Italian restaurants to shame. And it's only $7.
15 posted on 07/19/2014 5:45:02 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
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FReepers! Let's go!
Every donation counts!



16 posted on 07/19/2014 5:46:43 PM PDT by RedMDer (May we always be happy and may our enemies always know it. - Sarah Palin, 10-18-2010)
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To: Billthedrill

LOL! I once asked when ordering a delivery pizza how big a large is... Answer 8 slices.


17 posted on 07/19/2014 5:48:12 PM PDT by RedMDer (May we always be happy and may our enemies always know it. - Sarah Palin, 10-18-2010)
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To: Tax-chick

all of this could be put into a food processor and blended with a proper pizza sauce and the guy’d never even see it.


18 posted on 07/19/2014 5:49:12 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man ( Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: Lurker

bacon eats vegetables.


19 posted on 07/19/2014 5:49:36 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man ( Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: Secret Agent Man

See what I mean? Bacon is concentrated vegetables.


20 posted on 07/19/2014 5:51:56 PM PDT by Lurker (Violence is rarely the answer. But when it is it is the only answer.)
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