A Silent Fire
The Story of Inflammation, Diet and Disease
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
Increasing evidence suggests that hidden, low-level inflammation may be the number one cause of modern disease. Shilpa Ravella, an expert in nutrition and the gut, explains why our immune systems are turning against us and what we might do about it.
'Controlling inflammation is the key to good health and this beautifully written and researched book is the best way to understand it' TIM SPECTOR, #1 bestselling author of Food for Life
'A beautiful and authoritative dive into one of the most important scientific frontiers of our time' DANIEL M. DAVIS, Professor of Immunology and author of The Beautiful Cure
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Inflammation is the body's response to injury and foreign microbes. But as our environments and diets have changed, low-level inflammation, simmering quietly and undetected, has been identified behind everything from heart disease and cancer to mysterious autoimmune conditions.
Shilpa Ravella is a doctor at the forefront of this field, specialising in gut transplants, nutrition and the microbiome. In A Silent Fire she interweaves the latest research with unusual case studies from her own practice and the history of immunology to explain what we know about this elusive phenomenon. She debunks common myths about 'anti-inflammatory' lifestyles and explains the simple principles by which we can reform our relationship with food and our microbiomes to benefit our health.
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'As gripping as a mystery story and as useful as a self-help book' BEE WILSON, author of First Bite
'Compelling, thoughtful and rigorously researched' The Times
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"Hidden inflammation, which once lived in the margins of medical literature, is far from benign, and uncovering it... has been a process as slow and sinuous as the disease itself," writes gastroenterologist Ravella in her impassioned if disjointed debut. She defines inflammation as "our natural protection from harm in the context of immunity," and writes that while the typical American diet—replete with processed foods—fosters an aberrant immune system, eating whole foods (those "closest to their natural state") reduces systemic inflammation and helps fight disease and aging. "The immune system responds poorly to... substances in animal foods," she writes, and the most crucial "anti-inflammatory nutrient" is fiber. Ravella begins her comprehensive history of diet and inflammation in 1845, with a vivid profile of doctor Rudolf Virchow, whose work in hospitals "laid the foundation for our modern understanding of inflammation." She also outlines the work of surgeon John Harvey Kellogg, "one of the first physicians to tell patients that food played an important role in health." But as the book progresses, Ravella's writing gets more textbook-like, riddled with academic jargon and scientific terms. Though Ravella attempts to break up the science with personal anecdotes from her clinical practice, they feel too superficial to stick. This one doesn't quite come together.
