Does that description include those who only eat Kosher?

From articles I have read about Walter Breuning, it seems he had a pretty good quality of life. He lived his remaining years in an assisted living facility and liked getting together with other residents and having interesting discussions with them. Those were his friends that he socialized with and shared meals with in the dining room. Because of his age, he was treated like a V.I.P. and people from the outside (organizations like GRG) made appointments to talk with him. (I guess you could say that was his volunteer work.)

Why do you assume he didn't have a good quality of life?

Being passionate about something and being obsessed with something are two different behaviors. If a person is enjoying their life and being comfortable without the need to change everyone elses mind on a subject, and dont' think about one subject most of the time, then they are probably just passionate and not obsessed.

Disclaimer. My knowledge is limited to a few courses in psychology that I took with Martha Washington a couple of centuries ago and the fact that I am kinda interested in human behavior and read a lot of stuff about it.

I could be obsessed, but I don't think so because I play a lot of golf.

According to your definition, fast-food advertisers are obsessed because they are always trying to change everyone's mind (or influence them) to tempt them into buying fast food.

Also, on a "Medical and Health Discussion Board" isn't it possible that some people are just passionate about having discussions on whatever the topic happens to be? Isn't that what a discussion board is set up for in the first place?

Those who don't appear to be at all interested in healthy diet/lifestyle, always seem show up to be against whatever the healthy suggestions are. Are they passionate in their rejection of healthy suggestions or are they obsessed with it? If they don't like the topic, why do they show up for it, unless they are obsessed?

It would be like me, a non golfer, showing up at a golf course and remarking, "Hey, look at all those golfers, is that all they do is play golf all the time? Then they go for lunch together and talk about golf. I sometimes wonder if they might be obsessed." No, I would never do that. What would be the point of it, unless I am obsessed with the fact that they like to play golf?

A golf course is for playing golf and a health discussion board is for having discussions about health.

That's the ideal temp!

Re nagging and friendships -- what really creams my corn is the assumption among some of the food police that anyone who becomes ill brought it on themselves through some manner of "unhealthy" living.

I don't give a rat's patoot if someone smoked 8 packs of cigarettes a day and weighs 600 pounds. If that person develops lung cancer or diabetes, another human being should offer comfort and compassion, not condemnation and self-righteous disregard.

Dog forbid anyone suffers from heart diease these days; those poor souls get bombarded from all sides.

I have a genetic neurologic disorder, but by golly, there must be something I ate or drank or inhaled in 62 years, or some amount of exercise I didn't do, that caused it.

I wasn't talking about Walter. I was talking about people afflicted with Orthorexia.

Someone seems awfully defensive about the topic of orthorexia.

How can anyone be afflicted with a bogus disease? There's no such disease except as imagined by the fast food industry or those who work for them, namely dietitians. Read the following link:

The Truth About Orthorexia | Raw Vegan Radio

But that is just your opinion. I don't think it's imaginary or bogus. But I guess at one time, people didn't believe Anorexia was a real disease!

It's interesting that you haven't said the same about those who are promoting it as a disease. So far it's not clinically recognized as a disease. So it's only their opinion. Therefore, it's up to them to prove it and so far they haven't been able to. I don't think the burden should be on me to disprove something that hasn't been proven.

But I can tell you why I think it hasn't been officially accepted as a disease: They don't have any specifics on any of it. If they would say that going below a certain BMI is a sign of Orthorexia, then that would be something concrete. But the promoters don't want specifics, in my opinion. That wouldn't work for them because they want ALL healthy eaters to be under suspicion of having an unhealthy obsession. And the likely reason for that is because the fast-food industry is behind it.

Orthorexia doesn't necessarily exhibit itself as a disease of body weight, malnutrition etc. It's a behavioral problem and maybe a psychiatric one, and actually "addiction" would be a better term to use than obsession. The person gets addicted to their grueling, expensive, punishing regimen and cannot stop.

The people I know well who have orthorexia have also been addicted to bingeing and purging (bulimia), anorexic, and alcoholic. They are addicts, I'm very sad to say.

No paranoia here.

You still don't have anything specific. It's too fuzzy. Saying that it's grueling, expensive and punishing, is your characterization of it. I could say the same about golfing, basketball and football.

They may have eating disorders and they may be alcoholic, but at this point we can't label them as having orthorexia. That's because there are no scientifically accepted parameters.

Well, if you notice, I said "the likely reason". You might imagine it's being promoted by some caring organization that just wants to be helpful. But, generally, nothing happens unless some organization stands to make money. Has any legitimate scientific organization stepped forward to endorse it? If not, who do you think is behind it?

I would rather be sceptical than gullible.