When you have a cheat day or whether it is just another weekend, you go all out and have a huge meal with chole bhatures and pav bhajis and what not. You end up eating a lot of heavy and spicy food and then what comes next is acidity or digestive issues. During a time like this all you need is solkadhi! Solkadhi is a very effective digestive drink and has many other health benefits too. Most recently Bollywood actor Vicky Kaushal posted an Instagram story featuring a glass of this popular drink, and called it “Solkadhi for the soul”! Let’s take a look at why this drink is so good for the body and soul.

What is solkadhi?

Solkadhi or popularly known as Kokum Curry is a Konkan soothing digestive drink popular in the Indian state of Goa, Southern Maharashtra and Karnataka. Solkadhi is made from dried kokum fruit (that belongs to the mangosteen family) and coconut milk. Solkadhi is relished either with rice or consumed as a digestive beverage at the end of a meal or along with it. It is especially helpful after you have eaten something spicy.

Here are the benefits of solkadhi:

1. Helps in digestion

“Solkadhi is an excellent digestion aid as it detoxifies the digestive tract and promotes meal absorption,” says Avni Kaul, a nutritionist. Solkadhi helps to avoid acidity, indigestion, constipation, and gastrointestinal pain. You can have this after every meal as it will help you digest the food better.

2. Cools down the digestive tract

This drink is a perfect summer cooler. It’s cold in nature and the presence of coconut milk and kokum fruit cools down our digestive tract after a spicy meal. You can consider solkadhi as a substitute for buttermilk in South India.

3. Anti-carcinogenic

“Kokum fruit in solkadhi has anti-carcinogenic qualities, thus it limits the proliferation of malignant cells and helps in cancer prevention,” says Kaul. According to a study published in the ResearchGate Kokum fruit possess useful anti-oxidant, chelating, anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, cardio-protective and anti-ulcer activities which makes solkadhi extremely healthy.

4. Good for weight loss

Solkadhi is also famous for being an excellent weight loss drink. It doesn’t use any sugar or fattening milk and hence, is very low in calories. “Kokum fruits in the solkadhi contain hydroxy-citric acid and function as a fat-burning catalyst and good weight loss diet,” says Kaul.

5. Good for skin and hair

This drink might just end up giving a natural glow to your skin and a better hair health. Kaul explains that solkadhi’s anti-inflammatory and antioxidant ingredients can help improve the health of skin and hair tissues. Kokum has the enzyme elastase which reduces elastin degradation; this eventually results in the skin becoming firmer and healthier.

6. Promotes heart health

Kokum contains polyphenols, such as hydroxy-citric-acids that can help the body to lower triglyceride levels, lipids that can increase the risk of heart diseases, and help to keep heart diseases at bay. The coconut milk present in the solkadhi contains potassium, a mineral useful to keep blood pressure in check.

How to make solkadhi?

This pink-coloured drink is an instant fix for all digestive and dehydration problems. To make this all you need to do is take a glass of fresh coconut milk, add the extract from soaked kokum fruit in it, add some salt, mustard seeds and chili-garlic paste for enhancing the taste. You can garnish it with some coriander or mint leaves and solkadhi is ready!

So, next time you have a grand meal, keep solkadhi handy to fix all your problems in a tasty and cool way!