War is to be declared on a "toxic" food substance in a bid to eradicate it from the Westcountry diet.
At a landmark conference tomorrow health chiefs will step up their fight against rising levels of obesity in the region.
The event, at the Eden Project, will also be used as a springboard for a campaign to persuade food producers to ditch highly controversial trans-fats – which clog up the arteries and are blamed for hundreds of deaths a year.
Dr Kerry Bailey, consultant in public health medicine at NHS Cornwall, the primary care trust, who will introduce the Cornwall Healthy Weight Conference, said tackling obesity could save £51m a year.
"Many people are beginning to realise that being overweight is putting them at risk of diabetes or high blood pressure but they may not fully appreciate the wider health risks, including links with stillbirths."
It is estimated that one-in-three children and three in every five adults in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly are overweight or obese. In Devon, nearly a quarter of the adult population is obese.