Nashville will host the 7th Annual Southern Obesity Summit in fall 2013.

Mayor Karl Dean made the announcement at the 6th Annual Southern Obesity Summit, which is being held in Charlotte, N.C. The event is the largest regional obesity prevention event in the country, drawing hundreds of participants from 16 Southern states.

Since taking office in 2007, Dean has allocated, and the Metro Council has approved, the expenditure of more than $130 million on health-related infrastructure.

“Nashville and the entire Southeast is the battleground for this issue of obesity,” Dean said in a release. “It is clear to me that the fight over a country regaining its health is going to occur in the South.”