Walter Willet, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard University, who has long argued that only a "normal" BMI lowers the risk of death at least, among people who don't smoke.Flegal defended her data and countered with her own criticisms of Willet's research, including the fact that much of it relies on people selfreporting their height and weight, a datacollecting method that isn't completely trustworthy. (Most people tend to underestimate what they weigh.)Support for the paradoxMany researchers see merit in Flegal's overall finding, largely because it appears to be supported by other recent studies. Writes Hughes:One hint [of that support] lies in the growing number of studies over the past decade showing that in people with serious illnesses such as heart disease, emphysema and type 2 diabetes, those who are overweight have the lowest death rates.On Sunday, Akers, 37, did appear to get clipped by a New Orleans player on his fourth extrapoint attempt in a