Bolivian president: Men, lose the chicken

Evo Morales warns his countrymen that they risk their virility by eating hormone-injected poultry

Published April 20, 2010 8:23PM (EDT)

Bolivian President Evo Morales said Tuesday that men should stay away from chicken if they want to maintain their hair and virility.

Morales told an environmental conference that chicken producers inject the birds with female hormones "and because of that, men who consume them have problems being men." He also suggested eating too much chicken for too long could make men go bald.

Morales' warning may be out of date: Chicken producers in Europe, the United States and many other countries say they abandoned the use of hormones in poultry several decades ago and many if not most Western nations ban them outright.

The president also blasted Coca-Cola, saying, "It is harmful. ... Imagine what it contains."

Morales blamed "the west," a reference to industrial countries such as the U.S., which he said "bring us more and more poison."

The secret ingredient in Coca-Cola is widely rumored to be something Morales himself once grew as leader of a coca-producers union -- a version of the plant with the psychoactive substances removed.


By Associated Press

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