Today, there are uses for every part of the kernel and even the water in which it is processed. There are more than 3,500 different uses for corn products and more uses are being found each day. Many of the new products, like paints, are more environmentally-friendly than their petroleum counterparts.
Grits are small broken grains of corn.
They were first produced by Native Americans centuries ago. Before Christopher Columbus's voyage to North America, corn was grown only by the Indians of North, Central and South America. Petrified corn cobs that are over 5000 years old have been found in ancient Indian villages in the Western hemisphere. When Columbus's ships landed in what is now the West Indies, he traded with the Indians and took corn home with him to Spain. The Indian name for corn was MA-HIZ which the early settlers began to call maize.