Narrator: This is Science Today. Passing grandma's recipes down to later generations has more worth than just sentimental value. Joanne Ikeda, a University of California, Berkeley nutritionist, says there's a lot of nutritional value in these recipes, since older generations consumed more greens.

Ikeda: The tradition of eating greens has not necessarily continued down the generation. It may be what happens is the moms and the daughters tend to eat the greens when they go to grandma's house but they don't really prepare them for themselves.

Narrator: In a nutrition study focusing on African-American women, Ikeda reports younger women say they would eat more greens if they knew how to make them tastier.

Ikeda: Now the grandmothers know this, but it looks like they need to pass this down to the granddaughters. We're concerned that this wonderful tradition of eating greens may leave once this generation has passed. So, we'd really like to see more of an emphasis on handing this down to the mothers and the daughters.

Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.