Coca is better than milk for schoolchildren: Bolivian FM

0 Comments | AFP, February, 2006

LA PAZ (AFP) — Coca leaf has more nutritional value than milk and should replace it in school lunches, Bolivia's colorful new Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca told reporters.

"Our children need calcium and the coca leaf has more calcium than milk," said the official, who in past interviews confessed to have stopped reading books since he discovered his Aymara heritage and claims to get his knowledge from reading the wrinkles of his ancestors.

"Our children need phosphorous and the coca leaf has more phosphorous than fish," he said.

"Perhaps instead of milk in school lunches, we should be giving coca leaf to our children," Choquehuanca mused.

The official said his information on the nutritional value of the coca leaf came from studies done by the...