Resveratrol supplements may offer little benefit for healthy people

And everyone else.

Resveratrol — the red wine compound often touted for its possible healthful and anti-aging effects — may not bring the benefits to healthy people that preliminary research has suggested, a small new study finds.

In the 12-week study, 29 healthy women, most of them in their late 50s, were given either resveratrol supplements or a placebo. No appreciable differences were found after the 12 weeks between the two groups in regard to body fat, resting metabolic rate, fat levels in the blood, or markers of inflammation.

"Our data demonstrate that resveratrol supplementation does not have metabolic benefits in relatively healthy middle-aged women," study researcher Dr. Samuel Klein, director of the Center for Human Nutrition at Washington University in St. Louis, said in a statement.

People with metabolic problems did not take part in the study, and it is still possible resveratrol might benefit them, Klein noted.

But it won't.

Care to bet?