'Get it up, go vegan,' says Alicia Mayer in poster

MANILA, Philippines – "Eating Meat Got You Down? Get It Up! Go Vegetarian." Or as sexy actress and model Alicia Mayer suggests in a Vargas-style pinup poster taken by Raymund Isaac: A banana is better than Viagra.

"Viagra might get you through the night, but a healthy vegetarian diet can get you through your life," Mayer says in a statement issued by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). "A man who stuffs his belly full of dead pig flesh in the kitchen might end up delivering dead wood in the bedroom."

Mayer, a GMA Kapuso talent, "donated her body" to the cause, as the PETA statement put it, adding: "Mayer and PETA Asia-Pacific want to remind men that while swallowing pills to overcome impotence might be a short-term fix, kicking the ugly meat habit – which clogs the arteries to all a man's organs – is the best way to restore solid results to a lackluster love life."

Impotence, or erectile dysfunction, affects millions of men worldwide, PETA says. Citing one study, the group says about as many as half of men over the age of 40 in the US are impotent at least part of the time.

PETA says it's not so much psychological as physical in most cases – 90 percent of cases are physical, according to the Erectile Dysfunction Institute.

And the real culprit, PETA says, is meat, with its high cholesterol that blocks the flow of blood not just to the heart but to other major organs as well.

"High cholesterol, obesity, diabetes, prostate cancer and inflammation, and hormonal imbalances cause the vast majority of all cases of impotence," PETA says. "The good news is that medical science has proved that all these conditions can be virtually eliminated with a low-fat vegan diet."

Citing physicians and nutritionists, PETA suggests a diet that could prevent artery blockage. It should be a diet high in fiber, with plenty of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. These foods scrape the plaque off the arterial walls to get your blood flowing. - GMANews.TV