DAY 7: COUNTDOWN TO THE21-DAY 'CONSCIOUS CLEANSE'Have you ever considered how unusual it is for us to drink the milk of a cow, when so many of us are weaned on our mother's milk? These two milks were 'designed' for two different species - one reason, perhaps, why many of us have a lactose intolerance – many of us, one that we don't even know about!Sometimes, a cleansing programme like this can highlight such an intolerance. You may, for example, have experienced mysterious aches and pains (and attributed them to 'the aging process', say), or become increasingly prone to bloating or chesty coughs that seem to hang around far longer than they did when you were a child... Rather than attribute these symptoms to, say, 'growing older' or 'stress', or something similar, however... they could be signs that your system is intolerant to something that you are eating or drinking - and this detox programme might see some of these mysterious symptoms disappear. Be open to it... it just might happen! Often, we're all too ready to accept poor health as our lot... but what I'm hoping to go some way to communicating during this programme is my belief in balanced, glowing health and wellbeing being our birthright as human beings and a natural foundation for our lives.But for now, let's go back to the theme of today - and back to our fridges - and take out all the dairy products, including cow's milk (and milk from any other animal for that matter, though goat's milk seems to be a bit easier than cow's for the human body to digest)!Dairy products are known to build up mucous in the body – which can help create the conditions for degenerative diseases to take hold in the body. Many of you are already eating vegan diets, no doubt... but those that aren't, it might be interesting to keep an eye on how you feel over the next few days after taking this foodstuff out of the diet.Something that will help you in your bid to stay off cow's milk over the duration of the cleanse will be to make sure you have rice milk or almond milk on hand, so you're not tempted to swig a glass of the dairy stuff. They don't taste quite the same, but are delicious and easy to get used to. You can even make your own almond milk, easily and inexpensively (google it -  the recipe isn't hard to find!) And instead of butter or margarine, drizzle a little good quality cold-pressed oil on your slice of bread, rice cake or oatcake. It's all about gently breaking habits and getting used to something different - and in a few days you'll probably enjoy the alternative just as much - and wonder why you didn't make the change long ago!For those that are interested, here's a nice piece on how meat and dairy affect our consciousness - which, again, is what this particular dietary challenge is all about!Tomorrow we take out wheat and gluten. Don't forget - if you'd like to receive posts on the Little White Feather cleanse automatically, just click 'like' on our Facebook page - and you'll get them delivered daily direct to your news feed.