Cancer inexorably on the rise

The Robert Koch Institute reports that in Germany in 2012 almost half a million people were diagnosed with cancer. And the number of diseases continues to rise. There has been an 80% increase in cancer cases in the last thirty years. 

But what are the reasons for this change? Increasing life expectancy is certainly one reason for the growing number of cases of illness. If you died in the past at 70, you couldn't get cancer at 80. Sounds logical so far. 

But if you take the trouble to sort death statistics by age, you quickly realize that cancer can strike at any age. The usual suspects, alcohol and tobacco, are of course quickly ready as further explanations. We are now witnessing the generation that was able to smoke uninhibitedly for 50 or 60 years. 

Well, and that pushes the cancer rate up properly. The dangers of radiation or toxins are completely ignored. This goes so far in the public consciousness that even serious reactor accidents, like the one in Fukushima 2 years ago, are presented as rather harmless and are then also perceived as such. According to the Japanese government, not a single person has fallen ill from radiation.

Stupidity consumes - intelligence swills

Guzzling until you drop. What an outcry is sweeping through the country these days. A party has taken it upon itself to declare that six times a week is enough! No, they don't mean spreading their intellectual garbage six times a week.

Or from now on, only pay allowances six days a week. Or at least only make the people look stupid six times a week. This is a matter of life and death.

Only eat meat six times a week. What hypocritical populism! As if anyone would eat meat seven days a week. I think these ladies and gentlemen should travel to Tuscany less, lie less, and try less to spread do-gooder sentiments, and then there would be some hope for improvement.

We didn't just know that yesterday. Where do eggs and poultry come from? Exactly, from chicken concentration camps. Beef? Most cattle never see the green pastures of TV commercials. They're just meat producers, and that's that.

Pigs? They're supposed to be almost as intelligent as humans. Yet they're treated like cattle. Castration without anesthesia, stables that are far too small, etc. All known! And how many food scandals have we had in the last 12 months? Oh, I forgot... And anyway.

What would be on the table on the 7th day? Exactly! Fish from farms. Grain products from genetically modified and manure-covered fields. Strawberries and tomatoes from China. Dioxin (what was that again?) says hello. But of course, these people can't think of what would help. One of their pioneers, Joschka Fischer, will soon have the size of Helmut Kohl, and the current chairwoman is so round that she wouldn't benefit from a seven-day-a-week fast.

And anyway. Has no one noticed that citizens get more upset when a neighbourhood cat is tortured or when a neighbour poisons a dog that poops all over the streets than they do about all the issues surrounding factory farming combined? This shows the astonishing contortions that the (good) human moral sense is capable of.

And if the saying "intelligence drinks - stupidity eats" is true, then the fact that the Germans lead the world in meat consumption is rather a bad sign. Here at 115, we simply say: Eat only as much and as much as is good for you and also allows you to work physically. It's all about balance.