Eat your carrots or you will have to wear glasses! Eat your spinach so you can be strong like Popeye! Then there was the latest one I heard just the other day. Eat your vegetables or you will get the swine flu!

Everyone of us have heard some similar phrase from our parents as a means to get us to eat our vegetables. Our government even has whole websites devoted to help up be healthier by eating our vegetables. MyPyramid.gov is devoted to identifying what vegetables are, so we can make the right choices.

Your mom and the US government are telling the truth. Scientific studies support all the claims of government agencies. Vegetables are good for you. It is recommend that you eat 3 to 5 servings of vegetables each day. One serving of vegetables can be:

• 1 cup of raw leafy vegetables
• 1/2 cup of other vegetables, cooked or raw
• 3/4 cup of vegetable juice

Now the question for The Shopping Nazi is how much does it cost for those serving? Which is most economical fresh, frozen or canned?

Fresh vegetables are dependent upon what time of year you get them. The price of lettuce are dependent on the growing season. This is where planning one’s menu around the time of year. A head of iceberg lettuce will give you 5  one cup serving, make it less than 20 cents per serving.

Frozen vegetable prices usually do not vary to the time of year and growing season. I have found these run from 10 to 25 cents per serving. These are things like frozen carrots, peas, and varieties of mixed vegetables.

Canned vegetables are said to be the least nutritious of the three. Canned corn, peas, and green beans are the more common varieties. There the average can will give you 3 to 4 serving. Making the cost per serving in the 20 to 30 cent range per serving.

We prefer to buy the frozen vegetable, because it gives a wider selection of vegetables to choose from year round, at a relatively the same price per serving.

Tags: canned vegetables, fresh vegetables, frozen vegetables, mom, moms, vegetable