The stellar performance on Korean female archers at the London Olympics has been credited to kimchi and the practice of using steel chopsticks. The Korean team won gold for the seventh straight time since the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

"Korean women excel at feel sports such as archery and golf because of heightened sensitivity and dexterity in their hands and fingers. This sensitivity supposedly developed generations ago through the traditional method of making the national dish kimchi," Reute rs said Tuesday.

"Another explanation for this increased dexterity lies in their traditional eating utensil -- Korean chopsticks. While other Asian countries also use chopsticks, they tend to be longer, wooden implements, relatively easy to use. Korean chopsticks are made of slippery, slender steel and are incredibly difficult to master," it added.