We could write a book on this one!! Then a couple of other supplementary volumes on individual foods that are in or out, but in broad brush the paleo diet is eating food in its natural state that comprised the food we ate before we started farming grains. The things we hunted and gathered.

We stopped hunting and gathering and we farmed the things that gave the greatest return for the least amount of effort, we discovered the seductive beauty of wheat and how that wonderful little protein gluten could spice up our culinary life and guess what? Well, you know the answer, our health declined and has continued to decline.

It’s a concept, it makes you think about what you eat, it makes you feel better, fitter, stronger, it makes you prepare for the day ahead knowing that if you go out unprepared you are going to end up hungry in a grains-based wilderness.

If you ask the people who do allergy testing they will tell you that 70% of people are dairy intolerant, to some degree.

For most mammals the normal cycle is to stop producing the enzymes needed to properly digest and metabolise milk after they have been weaned. Which of course includes us.

Do we need calcium? That argument has been debunked, in fact for me we might possibly need less calcium. Even the argument that dairy has is good for preventing osteoporosis has been proven false.

But, generally many people can count on bloating, poor skin, weight gain and a myriad of minor ailments.

So, should we eliminate dairy from our lives totally? Well, maybe, but then you would miss out on cheese. and Natural Abundance Raw Vita crackers with avocado, tomato and cheese are to die for.

Are we being hypocritical? Probably, but in the words of that 17th Century French philosopher, ‘living ones life by too strict a regime is a wearisome malady’.

What is raw? Food that is uncooked, in its natural state or food that has been cooked below 40 degrees. Which cuts out most standard forms of cooking and where dehydration comes into play.

Why eat raw? The easy, on-everyone’s-lips answer is that cooking food tends to destabilise or modify some of the enzymes and destroy antioxidants and vitamins, and perversely makes food harder to digest which leads to fermenting in the gut which leads to inflammation and autoimmune reactions.

The not-so-on-the-lips answer is (and the Paleo diet does the same thing) it keeps you away from the supermarket and packets and cans of ‘food’ that has been homogenised, pasteurised and processed to within an inch of its life.

Our biggest raw offering? Our crackers, made to pair with other raw food. Without making you feel deprived.

The extension of the Paleo diet into Primal, adding in a way of working that extends beyond the pure food elements.

It encompasses when and how you eat and the range of foods. Bananas are obviously Paleo but we are largest per capita consumers of bananas in the world. Are they really part of a Paleo diet in NZ?

Did Paleo man really go out for a 5kg run to keep fit?

Work with us as we explore the Paleo/Primal interface and our end-game aim of a combined functional-fitness gym and Paleo/Organic café.

There are a couple of dimensions to this. In the immediate here-and-now sense, if it comes in a can or bottle and has an ingredient list with items you need to Google, it's probably not food you want to eat or an ingredient you want us to put in the food we make for you.

But in the wider sense there a couple of little tests that I like to go by.

If your grandmother wouldn't recognise it, then it probably isn't really good food.

And if ancient civilisations didn't eat it; there was probably a good reason for it.