>Of course, in the tropics it is warmer and "fruitier" and all-vegan-raw is
>more possible (though I got "restless" after a few months w/o RAF). There
>seems to be a trend (at least among traditional peoples) that the farther
>from the equator you go the more dependant on animal foods...

>Even at 80% raw you are quite remarkable (even more so w/o RAF) given your
>climate. You must admit there are few Finns eating the way you do, or am I
>mistaken and a high% raw diet is very popular in Finland?

Kirt, tell me WHERE a high% raw diet is VERY POPULAR? :-)

There is Living Food Institute in Finland (Ann Wigmore -style) and
we`ve also an Association of Living Food. This year the Association will
begin to educate living food trainers and therapists. Two finnish doctoral
thesis have been published recently concerning live food diet. You know raw food diet -
or living  food, elava ravinto, as we call it - is not commonly unknown in Finland.

Of course I`m an oddity (hope I have the right word here :)) in this latitudes
with my raw diet enthusiasm. In fact, here in the North near the Arctic Circle
and Russian border in a town with 18 000 inhabitants I am weird just because
I don`t eat meat!

My biggest problem is not coldness; i.e. how to keep myself warm in winter,
nor it is other people`s attitudes against me :-). Most of all I`m worried
about quality of foods I eat. It`s unbelievable difficult to get organic
vegetables here, especially in wintertime, not to mention fruits!. That is
very frustrating. And I just heard from news that nowadays imported foods
contain more pesticides than ever (and that is due to slack EU-directives!).
Instead, organic grains, seeds, beans and such are well available.

Tiina