Gourmet goose livers may get the gate. Trans-fats are on the firing line. Now, chain restaurants may have to show just how many calories are in those fries. With obesity and heart disease universally assailed, regulation of the things people eat has become the cause du jour at New Jersey’s Statehouse in recent weeks. “It’s becoming increasingly impossible for restaurants to survive in this state,” said Deborah Dowbell, president of New Jersey Restaurant Association. “I mean, come on, too much water isn’t good for you. Everything is bad for you if you do it too much.” She called lawmakers hypocritical for approving a new sales tax on gym memberships and then introducing legislation to modify what people can eat. The latest bill in the legislative food fight would require chain restaurants to list the calories, grams of saturated and trans fat, grams of carbohydrates and milligrams of sodium for each item on printed menus. Eateries that use only a menu board would have to list only caloric information, but would be required to provide the rest on request. The 69-million calorie question: Do you really want to know how many grams of fat those fries have? Yes, according to state Sen. Barbara Buono, who sponsored the measure to post the nutrition guides. “Currently, we spend almost half of our food dollars dining out,” said Buono, D-Middlesex. “This bill will give families an effective tool to make informed choices and hopefully reduce the incidence of obesity and its related diseases.” The requirements would apply to restaurants that are part of a chain with 20 or more locations in New Jersey and would not apply to daily specials, temporary menus or self-service items. Violators could be forced to pay fines of up to $100 for the first offense, and up to $500 for any subsequent offenses. Besides the measure that counts calories, another proposal would prohibit the sale and distribution in the state of foie gras fattened fowl livers. Proponents of the ban say the way foie gras is produced is inhumane. The dish is created by force-feeding geese and ducks to expand their livers. Not all New Jerseyans are happy about the proposed food legislation. Last week, when Sen. Ellen Karcher proposed barring restaurants from using a type of cooking oil blamed for increasing people’s cholesterol levels, she received death threats and had to have state police close her office. “They said that I should be pushed off a bridge, that I should be stabbed, that I am a Communist and several other things,” said Karcher, D-Monmouth. Karcher said she was inspired to introduce the legislation after hearing New York City was considering a proposal to ban restaurants from preparing foods containing more than trace amounts of artificial trans fatty acids. Political experts say such issues are always winners for legislators because the proposals make them seemed concerned about health care. But Seton Hall political analyst Joseph Marbach said the legislation was “purely for electioneering purposes.” “If lawmakers were truly concerned, they would enact a health care program so that every citizen has health insurance,” he said. David Rebovich, a Rider University political analyst, thinks the lawmakers likely have good intentions, but misguided priorities. He said officials should focus on lowering the state’s highest-in-the-nation property taxes and stop state employees from working multiple jobs to fatten their pensions. The real question, Rebovich said, is this: “When are they going to trim the trans-fat in New Jersey government?”