Stoke Your Digestive Fire
Feeding your ojas can start in the kitchen, say experts. Cultivating an all-important force known as agni, translated as "digestive fire," is one of the central tenets of Ayurvedic nutrition. Agni helps the body digest food and absorb nutrients, thus infusing the system with ojas. If your agni is weak, food can then turn into ojas's nemesis, ama, toxins that eventually cause illness. The following tips will help your digestive system maximize the nutritional power in every morsel.

Drink Ginger Tea
"In the morning, your agni is like a fire that's died down overnight to just a few embers," says McIntyre, adding that it's unwise to overwhelm your system with heavy, hard-to-digest foods first thing in the morning. Instead, she says, start the day with a steaming cup of ginger tea. "It helps to stoke that internal fire, so it's better prepared to 'cook' the food you eat." Drinking ginger tea throughout the day can continue to clear ama and aid digestion.

Forgo the Ice Cubes
In the summer especially, icy-cold water can seem more refreshing, but for maximum agni efficiency, choose room-temperature instead, says McIntyre. The reason? Think of agni as a furnace in your belly, and you'll see that dumping glasses full of icy water on it is counterproductive.

Have a Midday Feast
Just as the sun rises to its highest point in the sky, your stomach produces plenty of heat, making it the best time for digestion. "Your agni is working more efficiently at midday," says McIntyre. For this reason, Ayurvedic practitioners strongly recommend eating your main meal at noon, and having a smaller breakfast and a lighter dinner.

Pick a Bouquet of Tastes
In contrast with the meat-and-potatoes mentality so dominant in America, Ayurvedic cooks consider a wide range of flavors a necessity. "Food should be delicious and varied as well as energizing," notes Ayurvedic cooking expert Kavita Mehta, owner of India Foods Company, an online store. Having a balance of salty, sour, sweet, spicy, astringent, and bitter helps to cultivate agni. Most of us are already on intimate terms with the first four; to add astringent foods to your diet, include more beans, lentils, cauliflower, or cabbage, and reach your bitter quota with greens such as arugula or kale. If you know which doshas, or energies, dominate in your constitution (see "Know Your Dosha," pg.5), you can tweak these tastes to your individual makeup.

Shift with the Seasons
In the Ayurvedic paradigm, each season is influenced by a dosha. Summer is a pitta time, ruled by fire, so right now we need cooling fruits and salads. When winter arrives -- vata season -- you'll benefit from heavier, warmer meals like beans and whole grains. Often we adjust naturally to the seasonal changes, and following that instinct will help cultivate ojas. While you're at it, you'll safeguard your energy and be more likely to avoid illness.

Choose the Freshest Ingredients
"Your meal begins in the market," says Mehta. "Eat in season, choosing tender and crisp vegetables, supple fruits, good spices, nuts, oils and grains. Ayurveda pays special attention to the vital energy in foods and the sun's energy that's locked up in greens and grains." Leftovers are verboten in Ayurveda; eating a freshly cooked, colorful meal will charge your ojas far more efficiently than reheating yesterday's mac and cheese.

Eat Ojas-Promoting Foods
Certain foods avoided by some health-minded types can prove beneficial when eaten in moderation, say Ayurvedic experts. "Four specific foods are associated with ojas: organic milk, organic almonds, organic honey, and organic ghee (clarified butter)," says Simon. Before incorporating these into your diet, McIntyre recommends simplifying your meals for a few weeks. "Eat light, vegetarian foods," she says. Breakfast can include oatmeal and fruit. For lunch and dinner, eat basmati rice, beans and legumes, steamed vegetables, and mild spices. "These help prepare the body for the sweeter, heavier foods," she says.