  In this paper we study some interesting properties of the effective
superpotential of N=1 supersymmetric gauge theories with fundamental matter,
with the help of the Dijkgraaf--Vafa proposal connecting supersymmetric gauge
theories with matrix models.
  We find that the effective superpotential for theories with N_f fundamental
flavors can be calculated in terms of quantities computed in the pure (N_f=0)
gauge theory. Using this property we compute in a remarkably simple way the
exact effective superpotential of N=1 supersymmetric theories with fundamental
matter and gauge group SU(N_c), at the point in the moduli space where a
maximal number of monopoles become massless (confining vacua). We extend the
analysis to a generic point of the moduli space, and show how to compute the
effective superpotential in this general case.
