Ayurvedic healers consider digestion a key indicator and determinant of good health. If your digestive agnis (fires) are functioning effectively, the food you eat should get completely digested, absorbed and assimilated by your body, with the wastes regularly flushed out. An efficient digest-absorb-assimilate cycle leads to enhanced ojas. Ojas is the biochemical essence formed at the end of the chain of transformation that takes place with the raw materials we take in. Building ojas is crucial to an enhanced quality of life: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.

On the other hand, imperfect digestion leaves behind a residue that ayurvedic healers call ama. Ama, if left to accumulate in the physiology, eventually turns toxic, and difficult to flush out. Ama in the physiology offers fertile soil for disorders to take root and flourish. Little wonder, then, that assessing the strength of your digestive agnis (there are 13 of them) is an important part of an ayurvedic health evaluation.

If your digestion feels sluggish, here are some simple dietary recommendations to help it function more efficiently:

1. Each morning, have a glass of warm water to which a tablespoon of lemon juice has been added. You can drink it straight, or with a touch of raw honey or turbinado sugar. Lemon juice is a purifier and cuts ama in the digestive tract.

2. Have a glass of digestive lassi at lunch. Lassi helps enhance the digestive flora without clogging the microcirculatory channels of the body. Lassi should not be taken after sundown.

3. A slice of fresh ginger with a little lemon juice is recommended by ayurvedic healers as a way to stoke the digestive fires and appetite before a main meal. If you can't eat the ginger root, try squeezing out fresh ginger juice and combine the juice with lemon juice and a little warm water. Drink about 30-60 minutes before a main meal.

4. Don't miss breakfast. Stewed fruit and cooked cereal make an easy-to-digest breakfast that will keep your digestive fire stoked through the day.

5. Cook with digestion-stimulating spices. Ayurvedic spices such as dried ginger, turmeric, cumin, coriander and ajwain not only enhance digestion, they also help flush toxins out of the body and help improve absorption and assimilation of nutrients. Foods that are harder to digest, such as lentils, should always be cooked with digestion-enhancing spices to help prevent discomfort and flatulence.

6. Replace caffeinated and carbonated beverages with herb-spice teas. A cup of fragrant fennel tea after lunch helps aid digestion. If you enjoy the taste of fennel, you can chew on a few seeds after lunch or dinner.

7. Minimize snacking between meals, as your digestive system needs a rest-and-recharge time to function efficiently at mealtimes and after. If you do feel hungry during the day in-between meals, eat fresh fruit--it's easy on the digestive system. Fruit is not recommended after sundown.

8. Soaking grains, lentils, nuts and seeds for 30-60 minutes in warm water helps make them easier to digest.

9. Eat heavier foods, such a paneer, at lunch. Your digestive fires peak around the middle of the day, and are less bright in the evening at dinnertime.

10. Avoid iced beverages, because they have the effect of dousing the digestive fires. Sip a little warm water or room temperature water with meals. Drinking warm water through the day, especially warm water spiked with digestion-enhancing spices, helps digestion as well as purification.

11. Cut down on raw foods because they are more difficult to digest. Steaming covered, or sautéing briskly can help make foods easier to digest without too much loss of nutritive value.

12. Buy fresh whole foods, and prepare and eat food fresh. According to ayurvedic healers, foods that have been sitting around and processed foods are taxing on the digestion and more likely to create ama.