Almost one in every three Iowans is obese, according to the latest rankings, and what we’re drinking can be just as fattening as what we’re eating. Carol Voss, a registered dietician and a nutritionist with the Iowa Department of Public Health, says just one 12-ounce soda contains around 150 calories and 40 grams of sugar, which in itself is more than the daily recommendation. It’s much worse for the 20-ounce pops.

“If you were thinking of opening those sugar packets you find at a restaurant table, the 20-ounce bottle would be 16 of those dumped into that plastic bottle,” Voss says. “So, you can see how that might exceed what we’re supposed to be consuming.” A state survey in 2012 found that 72-percent of Iowans consumed between one and three sugar-sweetened beverages daily. For women, it was 67-percent and 77-percent for men.

Voss says a campaign called “Rethink Your Drink” is urging Iowans to consider cutting out at least some of those sweet drinks and trading them for water or a non-sweetened tea. “It’s just a way of being a little more realistic about the calories we’re taking in,” Voss says. “When people are looking at ways to balance your calories, we look at the food we eat rather than the beverages we take in and beverages can be a very easy thing to modify.”

Drinking one soda a day can equal an extra 25 pounds of weight per year. The latest “State of Obesity” report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation finds 31-percent of all Iowans are obese, the 12th highest rate in the country. Sugar-sweetened beverages are the largest source of added sugar in the American diet, and that contributes to things like obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

(Radio Iowa)

A release of anhydrous ammonia at  the Farm Service Cooperative facility in Harlan Friday morning, resulted in two employees being sent to a hospital in Omaha. According to Harlan Lt. Fire Chief Jason Wickizer, the two, unidentified employees were working on a semi tanker believed to have contained anhydrous ammonia around 10 a.m. Friday, when the incident occurred.

Ron Kenkel, of Farm Service, said the workers were taken to Myrtue Medical Center and then flown by medical helicopter to the Nebraska Medical Center. Farm Service Coop was evacuated but returned to normal operation within two hours.

The cause of the anhydrous ammonia release remained under investigation.

Two, Maple Grove, Minnesota residents were injured Friday night during a rollover accident in Pottawattamie County. The Iowa State Patrol says a 2006 Saturn Ion driven by 18-year old Laryssa K. McClouth, of Maple Grove, was traveling south on Interstate 29 at around 10:42-p.m., and was taking the offramp from I-29 onto I-680 southbound, when the vehicle failed to negotiate a curve on the offramp.

When the car went off the road to the left, McClouth overcorrected, causing the vehicle to spin out of control and cross the offramp before it entered the right ditch, where it rolled over and came to rest on the driver’s side.

McClouth was not injured in the crash. Her passengers, 21-year old Rayna McClouth and 16-year old Nolan McClouth, both of whom were wearing seat belts, were injured and transported by Crescent Rescue to Mercy Hospital in Council Bluffs. A report on their conditions was not immediately available.