Healthy Food Choices for a Picnic

Studies have shown that social eating improves individual dietary habits. Learn how to create your own healthy picnic in this video.

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Social eating is linked to healthy food habits
Pack a variety of foods
Choose leaner meats for your sandwiches

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Alice Merritt is currently the Campus Dietitian at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. She has a masters degree from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in public health with a concentration on nutrition. Alice has worked as a registered dietician for four years, and believes that helping people reach their nutritional goals will lead to a long and healthy life.

ALICE MERRITT: Now I am going to talk to you about how to pack a healthy picnic. Studies show that people that eat meals together, especially families, often develop better eating habits. So picnic is a great fun way to pack a good healthy meal and head out to the beach or head out to a park and sit down and spend some quality time together. It is important when you are packing a picnic to make sure you get a variety of foods. Pack lots of fruits; pack a vegetable tray, carrots with a light dip. And also when you are packing sandwiches make sure you choose leaner meats with things such as turkey, chicken slices, maybe lean ham, whole wheat bread is a good bread choice to choose. Important things to remember about packing a healthy picnic is remember to pack a balanced and a variety of foods. Also if you are going to pack foods such as meats, cheeses, dairy products, you need to take a cooler with an ice pack to keep those things cold. Remember, parents are healthy role models for children's eating behavior. So if you're going with your family, make sure that as a parent your role modeling healthy eating behaviors. So healthy picnic lunch would be something like a turkey and cheese sandwich on whole wheat bread, carrots with a light dip, either fruit or a hundred percent fruit juice and a water. These are all things to help pack a healthy picnic.

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