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Dear ice cream lovers on Steemit,

This is an announcement post for the #HealthyVeganIceCream Challenge! The aim of this contest is to promote healthy desserts. Eating delicious ice creams that are almost entirely made out of fruits are a nice way of including more fruits into our daily lives.

This contest is for everybody. Of course you do not have to be a vegan to participate, but your ice cream must be vegan. If you have never tried to make vegan ice cream, this is a great opportunity to try it out.

Even if it is still cold outside in your country, remember the words of some wise person: It is never too cold for enjoying a delicious ice cream.

I have been making some vegan ice creams before and I have posted them on Steemit. You can take a look here: apple ice cream, mango ice cream, banana ice cream, berry banana ice cream, lemonbalm banana ice cream.

I am very curious about your recipes and hope to learn a lot from you, guys!

Why vegan?

Apart the obvious fact that no farm animals were abused or harmed in the production of the ingredients, there are also health reasons. Traditional dairy-based ice cream is a primary source of saturated fats, cholesterol and transfats which have all been associated with non-favorable health effects. It usually also contains high amounts of refined added sugars. These are related to a reduced response to pleasure neurotransmitters (dopamine), leading to a situation where me must eat more sugar to get the same pleasure and thus overeat to achieve the degree of satisfaction experienced previously.

Plant-based (vegan) ice cream that focus on fruits and greens has less of the above-mentioned bad stuff, and more of the good stuff (e.g., phytonutrients, fiber) associated with more favorable health outcomes. It is basically a way to incorporate more fruits into our daily lives, which is important given the fact that most people don't as much fruit as they should.

How to Participate

Just take pictures of you preparing and enjoying your healthy vegan ice cream. Be sure to comply with the eligibility rules (see below).

Eligibility Rules

Please follow these rules in order for your entry to count and in order to have a possibility to be considered for the prices.

Formal aspects (tags and title):

• Include the tags #healthyveganicecream and #vegan as two of your possible five tags.
• Include the tag #healthyveganicecream in the title of your post
• Mention this contest in your post.

Ice cream (pictures and vegan):

• All ingredients of the ice cream must be plant-based (vegan) and must not include any animal products (e.g. cow milk, cow milk yoghurt, etc.).
• Please include at least two or three pictures of your ice cream in your post, showing for example ingredients, procedure and final products.
• Do not only post pictures, but also include a short description and the story around your ice cream (examples: Which ingredients did you choose? How did you make it? What is special about it? Why is it healthy?).

After you have written your post (submission process and deadline):

• Share the link of your contest entry post in the comment section of this post.
• Submit only one contest entry.
• Upvote this contest post in order to make it more popular.
• Resteeming this contest post is optional, but it would be very nice because it also will make the contest more popular.
• The submission deadline of your entry is Sunday, 22 April. All entries submitted before Monday 23 April count. However, deadline may be extended if the number of submissions is very small.

The prizes

As I like to reward more than only one person, there are prizes for the 7 best ice creams taking part in this challenge. Anyone wishing to increase the worth of the prizes and to be a sponsor of this contest is most welcomed. Just let me know in a comment to this post.

The seven entries that are deemed to be the best by the judges will get the following prices:

• 1st prize: 45% of the SBD payout of this post
• 2nd prize: 25% of the SBD payout of this post
• 3rd prize: 10% of the SBD payout of this post
• 4-7th prize: each 5% of the SBD payout of this post

As the prizes are directly related to the payout of this post, everybody wanting to support this contest should vote it up and resteem it, in order to increase the value of the prizes.

Winner Selection Criteria

Entries will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

• Detailedness of description (not too short, not too long) (20%)
• Uniqueness of idea and creativity (20%)
• Visual presentation, equipment and surrounding (20%)
• Visibility and authenticity of you and emotional power (20%)
• Number of included pictures (at least 2) (20%)

The winners will be selected by myself @smallstepschange. I reserve the right to include additional persons (guest judges) to help me make the decision. Remember, the decision will be final once the result is announced. No cash disbursement and/or an replacement of the prizes is possible and recourse to the courts is not permitted. The host of this contest reserves the right to change the conditions at any time.

Thank you for dropping by!

I am looking forward to your wonderful creative entries!

P.S.: All valid entries get an upvote and a resteem from me.