By Karen Blue

I have long been impressed with the allergy guide at Swiss Chalet so I decided to find out how other restaurants owned by the same company compared. Swiss Chalet is owned by Cara Operations Limited, a Canadian company also owns Restaurant chains Harvey's, Kelsey's Milestones and Montana's Cookhouse. Cara decided to discontinue using peanut free ice creams, and have gained mixed reviews from people with allergies.

Many of the symptoms caused by allergies are also similar to food poisoning. This is especially true of stomach upset, diarrhea, and unpleasant side-effects along those lines (see gluten allergy symptoms for some specific examples).

With the possibility of having identical symptoms, how do you know if you really have allergies, or if you are dealing with food poisoning?

First of all, the allergy symptoms are not identical to food poisoning symptoms in most cases. There are often other effects that are not the same as food poisoning.

For years - decades in fact - I have detested the early part of spring.

Now the late part of spring, that is a different matter, once the grass has sprung, the flowers bloomed, and the birds are singing in the trees. Even before that is fine.

But just now, as the snow melts to reveal the ground once again, I don't feel happy.

This has always been a mystery to me. I love the sun. It's great to get outside. True, it is the end of the ski season, but soon it will be cycling season. I can't loose!

Except I feel out of sorts around now.

Yesterday though, I suddenly realized what it is: mold!