Experts discuss the potential disease-fighting benefits

of diets that try to reduce inflammation.

Unlike the typical diet, it doesn't have a catchy name. Nor does it promise you'll drop a size in a week. It's not even really a diet, per se, but actually an eating plan for life.

It's the so-called anti-inflammatory diet -- or rather, anti-inflammatory diets.

A half-dozen or more diet books are based on the anti-inflammatory idea -- and numerous web sites promote "anti-inflammatory" eating. Each has its own spin.

Barry Sears, MD, of The Zone diet fame and Andrew Weil, MD, the Harvard-trained natural and preventive medicine physician, say the anti-inflammatory diet is ideal for overall good health. Proponents of the diet say it can reduce heart disease risk, keep existing cardiac problems in check, reduce blood triglycerides and blood pressure, and soothe tender and stiff arthritic joints.

But experts concede that anti-inflammation eating is more effective for some health problems than others -- and that the scientific evidence for the disease-reduction benefits of these eating plans is still being gathered.

WebMD rounded up the top experts on anti-inflammatory diets to get some details.