Soha Ali Khan: Parenthood brought change in my habits

MUMBAI: Bollywood actress and author Soha Ali Khan has lent support for a new health awareness campaign, and says that since the birth of her daughter Inaaya, a lot of change has happened in her daily life, and she is trying to set a good example for her daughter with her own lifestyle. "I think parenthood brought a certain change of habits in my daily days. Since I do not want Inaaya to watch TV or stick around the mobile phone, I have stopped watching TV in the day time, especially when she is around. Children always tend to imitate everything that we are doing in front of them," Soha told IANS. She added: "Instead of teaching her, I want her to learn by example. Since I do not want her to be an aggressive individual, I do not sought in front of her…also, children want to eat what we are eating. As we know that refined sugar is bad for health, I have stopped eating that because she always wants to eat from my plate. So yes, there are a lot of changes of habit happened in my daily life because of Inaaya," Soha said. The actress who is part of the #MissionI campaign shared her thought on why she is supporting the campaign. "I think it is a very important initiative where we are creating awareness of the intake of iodine for pregnant and new mothers who needed the iodine the most. I think these days we all are quite aware of what we should eat during pregnancy and what kind of exercise we should be doing to stay in shape but since iodine is a very small micronutrient, we are mostly ignorant about it. Iodine deficiency starts from there," said Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan's sister. #MissionI is an initiative taken by TataSalt and Hinduja Hospital in Mumbai. She also said that including the right amount of salt in the daily diet is the easiest way to fulfil the requirement of iodine for a new mother. The "Rang De Basanti" actress explained: "Iodine has an incredible effect on the development of a child, during pregnancy and afterwards as well. Iodine is one of the micronutrients that the body does not produce or retain. Therefore we need to have iodize salt. I am feeding my child and first five years of a child is very important because this is the time of brain and bone development. And iodine deficiency can lead to serious issues." "When we decide to bring a child to this world, as a parent, it becomes a responsibility to build a good healthy body by inculcating some of the good habits in the child," she added. IANS