Ask any mom or grandmom to name one item of fast food that’s reasonably healthy for kids and you likely will get a single answer — the Egg McMuffin.

Ditto Consumer Reports or the popular “Eat This, Not That” books or diet consultants trying to cope with the obesity epidemic that plagues American families.

As many businesspeople on the South Coast know, the Egg McMuffin was the creation of Herb Peterson, a former marketing consultant to McDonald’s who left a Chicago agency in the late 1960s when he asked Ray Kroc to let him buy into a franchise opportunity with the fast-growing food giant.

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