Theme and message

The main theme of the article is obesity in the United Kingdom. Sarah Boseley explores this theme in “How Britain got so fat” in several ways.

Obesity in the UK

First, she uses the case story of Georgia Davis to illustrate how severe the issue of obesity can become: “Georgia's rescuers put up tarpaulins to shield her from the camera lenses as they extracted her through a 10ft square hole in the brickwork and took her to hospital.” (ll. 15-19).

Using Georgia’s case as a background, Boseley inserts studies and data that show people’s perception on obesity and how obesity is the cause of life-threatening conditions: “The National Health Service is spending £5bn a year treating heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, cancers, liver failure, hip and knee joint problems, and other consequences of obesity…” (ll. 62-66); “Only 75% correctly considered themselves overweight, compared with 81% eight years earlier. We j...