Grits is made from hominy, which is made by soaking dried maize kernels in a lime solution. It's one of those foods that people either love or hate, with no in-between.
I love grits, hominy, and posole, which is just Mexican hominy.
A cousin of my wife's from Monroe, Louisiana was sent to Boston, Massachusetts at the age of three for some delicate heart surgery. The day after, he told his nurse, "my tummy hurts!" She replied that that was because he was hungry, and that the hospital would fix him whatever he wanted to eat because he was such a brave little patient. He thought a minute and said, "I want deer meat and grits!"
They had to fix a second choice.