Maybe this post has a valid point, or maybe it’s just dressed up to avoid outright braggartry. You decide.

I attended the Boston premiere of the new food documentary “Fed Up” Wednesday, and I was struck by how many of the experts quoted in the film that I’ve had personal contact with:

* Rob Lustig, perhaps the most quoted voice? Sat next to him at the Commonwealth Club of California a couple of years ago, on a panel I originated.

* Michele Simon? We hung out for a couple hours at the last Coalition for a Commercial-Free Childhood annual meeting. We met on social media — she’s very good at it — and had made a date to meet.

* Kelly Brownell? We spent a weekend “together” once. Not really, ‘cause there were 40 other people there too, at an invitation-only conference on food addiction and obesity. But we conversed a couple of times, and it's not like we were among thousands.

* David Kessler? We were the featured guests on one of the WNPR shows I did.

* Marion Nestle? By dumb luck, she sat next to me and we chatted for a while before she spoke at one of Louisa Kasdon’s “Lets Talk About Food” events at Boston’s Museum of Science.

* Nicole Avena isn’t mentioned by name, but the film referenced research she helped lead at Princeton on how rats behave on refined sugar. I might have been the only one in the audience to know it was her work. Maybe; was a pretty informed crowd.

So here, finally, is what makes me think this is more than just a look-at-how-many-famous-people-I-know post. I was surprised that I “know” so many of these folks — most of them (I’m looking at you, Kelly, and you, Kessler) answer my e-mails. The evidence would suggest that my efforts and desire to participate in this important national conversation are being rewarded, somewhat. (Though certainly, it’s not like they wanted to interview me for the film, so let’s not get carried away.)

I’m thinking that many folks can relate to this. We work at our priorities, the days click by, and it’s hard to see progress. But then once in a great while, we get an unexpected reflection.

Here’s to progress: yours, ours, and mine.