The battle is on. Colitis Warrior: A Recipe Collection serves to inspire the reader to take control of their health through dietary and lifestyle improvements. The book shares tips and Colitis-friendly recipes, woven into a serious, but sometimes lighthearted cooking memoir. Anna MacGillivray reveals the discovery of Gottschall’s Breaking the Vicious Cycle: Intestinal Health Through Diet. This book encouraged her to adapt her cooking to help her family members who suffer from colitis.
She divulges many other factors that helped her to write her cookbook, such as the globalization of food and the availability of international foods in her local grocery stores. Her keen observations identify turning points in her understanding of the world of cooking. An example of this is seen in her commentary on a recipe for risotto, that she affirms should not be adapted in order to honor tradition.
In the process of writing her cookbook, she develops respect for specific ingredients such as “Marukan Genuine Brewed Rice Vinegar” that allows her “Thai Cabbage Salad” and “Chinese vegetables-Copycat” recipes to turn out flawlessly every time. She writes in detail about the lore surrounding the “Press Box Salad-Copycat” recipe, so her readers can learn the secret that makes an iceberg lettuce salad go from mediocre to great.
Colitis Warrior: A Recipe Collection identifies the positive aspect of using failure as a tool for adaptation and improvement in cooking skills. MacGillivray motivates her readers and advocates that they are worthy adversaries in the battle of colitis.