Nutrition Is Central to Mental Health — Not Peripheral to It

Psychiatric symptoms don't always have purely psychiatric origins. When depression, anxiety, brain fog, or mood instability persists despite medication or therapy, the missing investigation is often biological: nutritional status, gut function, inflammatory burden, and hormonal balance that conventional psychiatry rarely examines.

Nutritional psychiatry addresses these biochemical conditions directly. At Evolution Medicine, this work is integrated with psychiatric and psychotherapy care — not offered as a separate wellness service.

Nutritional psychiatry at Evolution Medicine is led by Helaine Polanco, MS, functional nutritionist. Meet the full team →

Our Approach

Nutritional and Gut-Brain Assessment — Ms. Polanco begins with a comprehensive intake covering dietary patterns, digestive symptoms, energy levels, sleep quality, stress load, hormonal history, and supplement use. This assessment determines what testing is warranted and where to focus.

Functional Laboratory Testing — When indicated, testing evaluates micronutrient levels, inflammatory markers, hormone balance, and gut microbiome status. Deficiencies in nutrients such as Omega-3 fatty acids, B vitamins, magnesium, iron, vitamin D, and zinc are common drivers of depression, anxiety, and poor treatment response — and are rarely identified in routine psychiatric care.

Personalized Nutrition Plan — Recommendations address the specific deficiencies and imbalances identified through assessment and testing. This includes dietary strategy, targeted supplementation, gut-healing protocols where relevant, and blood sugar regulation — designed for realistic implementation, not idealized compliance.

Ongoing Review and Adjustment — Follow-up appointments track laboratory changes and symptom response, refining the plan as the clinical picture evolves. Ms. Polanco coordinates directly with Dr. Lazarevic when nutritional findings intersect with psychiatric care or medication planning.

Nutrition, Substance Use, and Recovery

Substance use — including alcohol, stimulants, and opioids — depletes key nutrients and disrupts gut function in ways that compound the mental health symptoms driving use in the first place. Nutritional rehabilitation addresses the biological toll that often persists well into recovery: the inflammation, hormonal disruption, and micronutrient depletion that standard psychiatric care rarely examines.

For patients in any stage of recovery — or for those where substance use is a variable in a more complex clinical picture — nutritional psychiatry is a natural and often essential extension of integrative psychiatric care.

What Makes This Different

Testing-driven, not protocol-driven — Recommendations reflect your actual biomarker results. There is no standard plan applied to every patient.

Integrated with psychiatric and psychotherapy care — Ms. Polanco works within the same clinical framework as Dr. Lazarevic and the practice's psychotherapy services. When nutritional findings are clinically relevant to treatment planning or medication, that coordination happens directly.

Available a la carte, within nutritional psychiatry packages, or as part of Momentum Care™ Packages — Nutritional psychiatry can be accessed independently, through a structured nutritional psychiatry package, or as part of a coordinated fixed-fee Momentum Care™ package for more complex cases.

Nutritional psychiatry package programs are structured for patients committed to a sustained protocol. Three tiers are offered — Foundation (2 months), Intensive (6 months), and Transformation (12 months) — each at preferred rates relative to individual sessions.

All packages include a comprehensive nutritional assessment and personalized protocols. Lab fees are not included — foundational Quest labs are often covered by insurance; functional labs are typically out-of-pocket and may be paid via HSA. Sessions must be completed within the package timeframe; grace periods are built in for rescheduling.

A la carte rate — $295 initial consultation (60 min)

Still evaluating? These pages may help.

Understand the full integrative approach → Integrative Psychiatry NYC
Explore coordinated team care → Momentum Care™ Packages
Have questions? Frequently Asked Questions