British taxpayers spend billions for the health care of an increasingly overweight population. The World Health Organisation predicts that almost three-quarters of men and two-thirds of women in the UK will be overweight or obese by 2030.

Graham MacGregor is Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, Queen Mary, University of London was trained as a nephrologist but then became interested in blood pressure control mechanisms, particularly related to the renin-angiotensin system, the mechanisms whereby salt puts up blood pressure. Now he says he knows a magic bullet for halting obesity: unsurprisingly it is in line with all of the latest fad claims in media.

MacGregor believes the food industry is slowly poisoning large sections of the population and that the only solution is more regulatory control over food corporations, to force them to use less sugar, less salt ... less everything.

He believes all "processed" foods, from milk to vegetables in a can, are a conspiracy to pad the bottom lines of corporations interested in creating addicts by making food inexpensive and so tasty they become addictive. He has been successful in the past, declaring war on salt and citing every epidemiology paper affirming his beliefs (now overturned) and then doing the same for sugar.

MacGregor is giving an SCI talk on the subject. Expect all the popular platitudes about fresh fruit, farm-to-fork, organic, holistic, free-range and unprocessed cuisine.