First of all you need to Google “grits”. While cornmeal, Polenta, and the aforementioned are both derived from corn the process to make hominy and hominy grits are what makes them hominy and hominy grits. Furthermore “grits”, ground hominy. Is much coarser then corn meal.I'm of the opinion that any time that you must 'doctor' something to make it palatable, you shouldn't be eating it in the first place. Grits ae nothing more than boiled cornmeal (cornmeal mush) which in itself began as a Depression Era meal. Every time I visited 'The South' and was served grits. I made the server remove them, because they're disgusting. It's like oysters in Louisiana. they must be 'doctored with hot sauce and such before they can be eaten, because they too, are disgusting. Not a 'picky' eater, either. In Viet-Nam. ate monkey, cooked over an open fire. It's just, slimy and nasty won't go into my mouth.
Grits are very bland in flavor and like soy tofu rely on additives to increase the flavor, hence all the different additives mentioned thru out this thread. My favorite is cheese, lots of cheese, any flavor of cheese, melted into the boiling grits.