Dr. Nicole McCarter

With the weather finally being consistently warm, I’ve been craving more cold foods and lots of raw vegetables. I threw this salad together for lunch on Saturday. When my husband commented on how beautiful and tasty it was, I figured I had to share! What you’ll need for 1 salad: 2 large handfuls of organic spring mix 5-6 kalmata olives cut in half 5-6 cherry tomatoes cut in half (I used heirloom the different colors are beautiful) 1 big spoonful of Hummus 1 big spoonful of Ta

Spring is in the air and with it comes pollen. This can mean a significant reduction in quality of life for allergy sufferers. According to the CDC, allergies are the 6th leading cause of chronic disease in the U.S. with an annual health care cost of more than $18 billion (1). It’s estimated that 30% of adults and 40% of children suffer from allergies. What is an allergy anyway? It’s when the immune system has a reaction to a substance (pollen, pet dander, mold, etc. ) that

Happy Spring! It’s that time of year when you inevitably start thinking about swimsuit season and your beach bod, or lack thereof. If you’re not in the best shape of your life, you’re not alone. Did you know that 70% of Americans over the age of 20 are overweight or obese? (1). There are some obvious reasons for this like the poor quality of the standard American diet (aka S.A.D.) and general lack of exercise and movement. But there is another big issue here that is often fai

I know it probably doesn’t sound like something you need advice on how to do, but you probably do. Typically if you’re making a smoothie, you’re trying to do something beneficial for your health. Unfortunately, I too often hear my patients making some simple mistakes. Let’s fix that. I used to hate smoothies, but now I truly love them. My husband and I have one every morning for breakfast. It has really simplified our morning routine. We never go hungry, and we start the morn

Did you know that some of your produce travels thousands of miles to get to your plate? The numbers are alarming. In one study, it was found that apples traveled 1,555 miles, peaches 1,674 miles, grapes 2,143 miles and lettuce 2,055 miles to get to Chicago (1)! Obviously the long distances food travels has detrimental effects on our environment, but it also means significantly less nutritious food. Here are some things to consider: Storage time: Probably the most important f

Should you spend the extra money to buy organic? If you don’t have time to read this full article, the short answer is YES. For both your health and the health of the environment, it's a small price to pay. If you want to know exactly why, keep reading. Somewhat surprisingly, I still get this question quite often. Then I did some investigating and realized organic isn’t nearly as prevalent as I thought. According to the USDA, organic sales only account for around 4% of total