Or you can head off the whole ordeal by asking your waiter not to bring you any bread in the first place. When you're watching your weight, you may bemoan the fact that plain food doesn't taste as good as food jazzed up with sauces and creams. If you'd like to please your palate without adding calories, reach for a bottle of hot sauce. Not all vegetables are created equal. When you're counting up serving sizes, a.k.a. diet exchanges, you have to count certain veggies as starches.
Potatoes are the classic example.
Other starchy vegetables include corn, peas, squash, sweet potatoes, and yams. In general, you can eat about a half cup of starchy vegetables for one starch exchange. In a slightly different category are beans and lentils, which contain both starch and protein. Count a half cup of beans or lentils as one starch serving PLUS one ounce of protein. It tastes great, it's full of healthy nutrients, and it's extremely low in fat and calories.