Alan Johnson, the health secretary, will begin a sustained political effort today to improve the nation's health "from the womb to the tomb".

Responding to criticism from Sir Derek Wanless, Gordon Brown's adviser, disclosed in the Guardian yesterday, he will make the promotion of healthier lifestyles his department's top priority. Campaigns to tackle the increasing levels of obesity and alcoholism, which are driving thousands of people towards an early grave, will be aimed at deprived areas where life expectancy is lowest.

Measures will include:

· doubling public spending on campaigns to reduce alcohol consumption, targeted at people in poorer areas with the most drink-related illnesses and deaths;

· doubling the number of people signing up to stop-smoking clinics in the most deprived communities, which would also be targeted to promote statin therapy for patients with high cholesterol levels;

· a £200 grant to help expectant mothers afford nutritious food.

Mr Johnson will say he wants to avoid hectoring people but will argue the general public is " now less concerned about a nanny state than they are about a neglectful state".

In an address to the New Health Network in London, billed by Mr Johnson as his first big speech since becoming health secretary in July, he will say: "If our mantra [for the NHS] in the 1940s was 'from the cradle to the grave', then our vision for the 21st century should perhaps be 'from the womb to the tomb'."

The grant to pregnant mothers will help reduce the number of babies with a low birth weight that increased the risk of cerebral palsy, sight impairment or deafness, he will say.

Mr Johnson will add: "We won't send around the food police if someone spends part of their grant on other items they may need in pregnancy. But by supplementing valuable practical advice with necessary financial assistance we are more likely to encourage expectant mothers to make responsible choices in a way that gives the child the best start in life."

Ministers are preparing for a report on obesity which Sir David King, the government's chief scientific adviser, is due to deliver in a few weeks. Mr Johnson hinted that policies to combat obesity may come out of the comprehensive spending review in the autumn.

The speech follows a report yesterday from Sir Derek, a former chief executive of NatWest, who advised Mr Brown in 2002 to embark on a £48bn increase in the NHS budget. He said the long-term survival of the NHS was threatened by the cost pressures of the obesity epidemic. Within 20 years there could be a taxpayers' revolt against increases in the health budget if the government could not engineer an improvement in NHS productivity.

Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary, said: "Even Mr Brown's own adviser thinks he has mismanaged the NHS. Labour have invested lots and achieved too little.

"Public health budgets have been robbed to pay off huge deficits despite warnings about the strain that spiralling obesity levels will have on the NHS."

Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrat health spokesman, said: "Sir Derek's report is a damning critique of the government's failure to get value for money out of all the extra investment in the NHS...with rising investment in the NHS set to end next year, it is vital that we get more out of the money spent now."