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To the Editor: 

Pardon my ignorance, but I always thought breakfast grits were nothing more than coarsely ground corn. Silly me. I read the ingredients on the box and discovered I should have earned a degree in chemistry before I sat down to eat my morning cereal. 

No withstanding the fact I have no idea whether the corn is genetically modified because chemical companies fight tooth and nail to prevent dissemination of such information, the white corn is degerminated, I suppose to prevent grits from growing a corn stalk in my stomach – illegally. [And you thought abortion only applied to humans.] 

Chemists seem to love the hydrogenation of added oils. Don’t worry, it’s only partial. Perhaps too much may blow a paying customer away? After all, and according to the Websters Dictionary, hydrogen is an inflammable gas. 

Cereal companies, being health conscience though, also add soy lecithin instead of the more expensive egg yolk-amongst sundry and suspect ingredients too numerous to mention due to lack of box and column space. 

Of course, there are the ever present preservations that hold the grits in [perp¬etuity, just in case I plan to reincarnate and again have a taste for grits. Guess I’ll just have to grow and grind my own corn, organic, naturally. 

Charmaine Soedat 

Berkeley