Here the 1837 edition deleted the indefinite article a before little, perhaps because without the a the phrase “little or no food” becomes fully negative. The negative little without the a means ‘not much’. There is one other example in the text of a little that refers to nourishment:
In this case, we expect the indefinite article because of the word save. The preceding negative “no water” is reversed by the positive save- phrase; thus the positive a little rather than the negative little is required.
It is possible that here in Ether 9:7 the original text actually represents another corrective or —that is, Moroni started to write “and kept him upon a little food” but then corrected a little by adding or no, thus giving “and kept him upon a little or no food”. In any event, there is nothing particularly difficult about “a little or no food”, although in modern English we expect “little or no food” without the a because of the negative context.
Summary: Restore in Ether 9:7 the original a in the phrase “a little or no food”, the reading of the earliest text.