“I had been seduced by righteous eating.”

So far at least,  this sort of thing has never happened to me.

There is a blurry line separating ‘normal’ healthy eating and orthorexia nervosa, but one way to define the condition is when eating ‘healthily’ causes significant distress or negative consequences in a person’s life.

They may be ‘plunged into gloom’ by eating a piece of bread, become anxious about when their next kale, chia or quinoa hit is coming, or eat only at home where ‘superfood’ intake can be tightly controlled.

Such behaviours can have a significant impact on relationships with family members and friends, let alone on their mental health.

Let me confess right here, I like kale. I also like pork. Is there some reason any of this matters?

Obviously it does.

Once again, you might think that people have better things to care about — much less worry about — than what other people are doing.

But it seems that there is something about caring that becomes akin to a disease process. Far from it being enough merely to do what they think is right, the truly righteous feel morally obligated to dictate to others to do what they do.

I think it makes for a very uncivil society, but a growing number of people think that if what you do or think is offensive to others, you have harmed them.

As Robert Bork said, “Knowledge that an activity is taking place is a harm to those who find it profoundly immoral.”

(Many on the left agree with such thinking.)