HEIDI SNYDER, 46, of Port Townsend, Wash., is a certified nutrition consultant and a holistic health educator. She is fabulously versed in both the constituents and the wholeness of food, as I rediscovered when we both attended the Society of Food Addiction Professionals conference recently in Houston. Before we parted on Sunday, I asked her to play my typical short-question interview game, in which the questions — and, by my request, the answers — are 10 words or less. Remember, please: No counting. It’s a goal, not a rule.

Jean Fain, 55, of Concord, Mass., is a longtime friend and colleague, though it is coincidental that we both ended up professionally concerned and active in the fight against obesity. When we met, we were working at the Boston Globe.

Though I beat her to the presses by a month or two, Jean is a whirlwind of activity. In addition to her book “The Self-Compassion Diet, A Step-by-Step Program to Lose Weight with Loving-Kindness,” Jean is a psychotherapist in private practice and a teaching associate at the Cambridge (Mass.) Health Alliance.

I recently asked her to engage in an interview form I enjoy, in which the questions, and answers, are 10 words or less. Please note: it’s not a strict rule, and I’ve done some editing as well.

Another short interview: I ask questions of 10 words or less, and ask respondents to answer with the same brevity. The theme of the current series is people who are working in eating disorder recovery.

MARTY LERNER, 60, Davie, Fla.

Chief executive and clinical director, Milestones in Recovery

Long-time readers will recognize this format: I ask interview subjects questions of 10 words or less, and ask them to respond in kind (please, no counting). I've done about a dozen in this style on people working in sustainability, and now I hope to do a set with people working on some part of the obesity problem.

PHIL WERDELL, 68, Sarasota, Fla.
Cofounder, Acorn Food Dependency Recovery Services
What did you want to be when you grew up? “A leader.”
Someone you admired in childhood, outside your family
“Robert McNamara.”
Someone you admire today, outside your family “Bill Wilson,” cofounder of Alcoholics Anonymous.
What do you do for a living? “I work intensively with late-stage food addicts and write about food addiction.”