A new study has found tantalizing evidence that a highly concentrated form of a compound found in red wine and dark chocolate might be able to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

But it’s likely that it’s because the compound is tricking the body into acting as if it’s not eating at all.

Scott Turner, director of the Memory Disorders Program at Georgetown University Medical Center who was the study’s principal investigator, emphasized caution in interpreting the results of the Phase 2 clinical trial, saying further research is needed to determine whether the compound has a beneficial effect.

But Turner said researchers were excited to find that resveratrol produced a measurable effect on an important biomarker of the disease’s advance in people who have mild or moderate Alzheimer’s: The level of an abnormal protein known as beta amyloid became stabilized in patients who consumed two grams of resveratrol a day.