This little poem comes from Disticha de Educatione of Urbano Appendini, published in 1834; you can see the whole book at Google Books.
Cibus
Vita cibo perstat, sed vitam saepius aufert
Ipse cibus, si sit noxius, aut nimius.
The vocabulary is keyed to the DCC Latin Vocabulary list. There is only one word in this poem that is not on the DCC list:
noxius, -a, -um: harmful, criminal
perstō, perstāre: stand firm, endure, persist
auferō auferre abstulī ablātum: take away
aut: or
cibus -i m.: food
ipse ipsa ipsum: him- her- itself
nimius -a -um: too much, excessive; nimis or nimium: excessively
saepe: often
sed: but
sī: if
sum, esse, fuī: be, exist
vīta -ae f.: life
