The incredible story of Michel Lotito, the Frenchman who ate 18 bicycles and even a plane

We all fantasize about having superpowers or being indestructible at some point. There are some people who appear to be non-human, and this is the case with Michael Lotito. Man had the ability to eat all kinds of things like wood, glass, metal, cars and up to entire floors without suffering from any health problems.

Even if it seems impossible, for “Monsieur Mangetout” (ladies eat everything) this was common in their daily diet. And he had a life dedicated to his great “superpower”.

Its unique history has been recorded in Guinness World Record as “The Strangest Diet”, after recording that during his lifetime he ate one coffin, one computer, two beds, one pair of skis, seven televisions, six light fixtures, 15 supermarket trolleys and 18 bicycles.

“Mr Mangetout”

Michel Lotito was born on June 15, 1950 in Grenoble, France. Her obsession with eating strange objects began when she was 9 years old. The then child instinctively began to eat the pieces of a broken glass. So he, little by little, increased the dose in his “diet”.

His mother, worried and frightened by his condition, decided to take him to the doctor and diagnosed with an eating disorder known as pica, which is a psychological disorder characterized by an appetite for substances that are largely non-nutritive. Doctors determined that Lotito also had a thick lining in his stomach and intestines that allowed him to consume sharp metal without injury.

Interestingly, it had unusually powerful digestive juices, meaning it could digest unusual materials. But soft foods, such as bananas and hard-boiled eggs, made her sick.

He started using “his powers”

Michael Lotito decided not to fight his gift anymore and, at 16, he was already a star in his city. In 1966, the young man became popular and began to perform eating glass, metal, wood and plastic. His flashy diet has earned him around $1,000 per show.

His shows attracted so much attention from the audience that he took the stage to pinch him with pliers, shove darts into his back, and even burn his fingertips with matches.

When he performed he ate about a kilo of material and his method of digestion consisted of taking mineral oil and plenty of water. Michael surprisingly never harmed his organs and it is estimated that between 1966 and 1997 he ate almost nine tons of metal.

According to the newspaper The Leader Post, when Lotito ingested bicycles or other means, he avoided ‘inedible’ parts such as pedals, chain and crank. Furthermore, the man restricted his diet trying to do these dangerous diets only two or maximum three times a year.

Lotito and his great challenge

Michael Lotito had been giving presentations by eating “little metal things” (which is already crazy just thinking about it), but he wanted to achieve a much bigger goal and decided to plan his biggest undertaking. Mr Mangetout ate an entire Cessna 150 plane.

So he took his time. He started chewing on the two-seater plane in 1978 and continued, bite after bite, until he finished it in 1980.

After this incredible feat, he was awarded the Guinness award for “the strangest diet in the world”. As reported by Guinness World Record, 18 bicycles, 15 supermarket trolleys, 7 televisions, 6 chandeliers, two beds, a pair of skis, a computer and that Cessna plane passed through Monsieur Mangetout’s esophagus.

X-rays by Guinness experts found that Lotito could ingest 900 grams of metal per day. No one has broken the record yet.

Lotito’s popularity became so great that even the famous writer Ben Sherwood dedicated the book “The Man Who Ate a 747” to him. Sherwood interviewed the man on one occasion and confessed, “The least appetizing thing about the plane was the tires.”

Michael Lotito died of natural causes on June 25, 2007 and was buried in the Saint Roche Cemetery in Grenoble, France. He today he is remembered as a legend and a superhero.